Michael Katsidis retained the interim WBO lightweight title by stopping Kevin Mitchell in the third round Saturday.
Katsidis handed Mitchell his first defeat in 32 fights in front of a 14,000-strong crowd at the stadium of West Ham, the Londoner's favorite soccer team.
Mitchell caught Katsidis with a left hand early in the third round, but the Australian hit back, sending his opponent back onto the ropes more than once before stunning him with a left hook that led to referee Dave Parris stopping the fight.
``I feel I'm the best I've ever been, we've worked hard and I've been away from my family and my new baby girl,'' the 29-year-old Katsidis said. ``I can't leave Britain anyway because of the volcano, so I just want to stay here. There's 20-odd thousand passionate people here cheering and supporting the sport I love. I'm just going to enjoy my title, I am the world champion.''
The 25-year-old Mitchell said his preparations for the fight had not gone well.
``With five weeks to go my trainer Jimmy Tibbs said to me 'You're not preparing properly for this fight, you keep messing around,''' he boxer said. ``There were things I wasn't doing. I was having a few late nights. I've got a young family and there have been a lot of rows that people don't understand about. That's made things hard.''
