By Jake Donovan

A brief skirmish between undercard combatants Tommy Martin and Ricky Boylan was the only deterrent from an otherwise civilized weigh-in for Saturday’s big show at 02 Arena in London, England. 

Headlining the show, Kevin Mitchell and Daniel Estrada square off in a 12-round lightweight title eliminator. Both fighters did their part to make the bout official. 

Mitchell (38-2, 28KOs) tipped the scales at 134 lb. for his first fight with title implications since a 4th round knockout loss to then lightweight belt holder Ricky Burns in Sept. ’12. The 30-year old Brit also came up well short in a shot at the interim lightweight title, suffering a 3rd round knockout to Michael Katsidis in their May ’10 clash.

Estrada (32-3-1, 24KOs) weighed 134.2 lb. for his second consecutive road trip, this time armed with countryman and boxing legend Juan Manuel Marquez, both of whom are trained by Nacho Beristain. His last fight outside of his native Mexico didn’t fare very well, as he was stopped in nine rounds by unbeaten lightweight titlist Omar Figueroa. The bout was Figueroa’s last title fight at 135, as he will likely move up to the 140 lb. division.

The winner of Saturday’s main event will go on to face Jorge Linares, who claimed the vacant title with a 4th round knockout of Javier Prieto last December in Japan.

Mitchell and Estrada were elevated to main event status after unbeaten British heavyweight Anthony Joshua was forced to bow out of the show due to injury. 

The 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist was due to face American journeyman Kevin Johnson in the show’s headliner, but a back injury suffered during training camp led to his second straight fight cancellation. Joshua was also due to face Dorian Darch last December, but a bum shoulder scrapped those plans.  

All fighters on the undercard made weight, but Boylan (12-1, 4KOs) was the only one who chose to make an ass of himself. An obligatory staredown with the unbeaten Martin was camera-friendly until the once-beaten super lightweight opted to lunge his head into that of his upcoming opponent, with venue security guards immediately jumping in to separate the two fights.

The card will air live on Sky Sports in the U.K.

FULL WEIGHTS
Kevin Mitchell, 134 lb. vs. Daniel Estrada, 134.2 lb. - 12 rds, lightweight title eliminator
John Wayne Hibbert 139.1 lb. vs. Tyler Goodjohn 139.6 lb. - 10 rds, super lightweight
John Ryder 159 lb. vs. Billy Godoy 159.1 lb. - 12 rds, middleweight
Tommy Martin 137.4 lb. vs. Ricky Boylan 139.5 lb. - 10 rds, super lightweight
Charlie Edwards 113.5 lb. vs. Craig Derbyshire 114.5 lb. - 4 rounds, super flyweight
Isaac Chamberlain 199.3 lb. vs. Moses Matovu 198.5 lb. - 4 rds, cruiserweight
Ben Hall, 157 lb. vs. Ryan Toms, 156.2 lb. - 6 rds, super welterweight

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of krikya360.com, as well as a member of Transnational Boxing Ratings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox