WBA light welterweight champion

On October 10, 1998, he beat Moroccan Khalid Rahilou by a twelve-round unanimous decision in Paris, France, becoming the WBA light welterweight champion.

Mitchell retained his world title four times, his last successful defense being against Puerto Rican Felix Flores on September 16, 2000, at Las Vegas. Mitchell was dropped in the first round, but he recovered and edged the challenger by two scores of 116-111 and one of 116-113.

First fight with Tszyu

After that fight, demand rose for a unification title bout between Mitchell and Kostya Tszyu of Australia, the WBC light welterweight champion.

The highly anticipated match took place in Las Vegas on February 3, 2001. The outcome was controversial, as Mitchell broke his knee early in the fight and he could not continue after round seven. Although Mitchell was not knocked out in a conventional way, this nevertheless counted as a knockout loss in his record.^[1]

Mitchell then fought eight bouts, winning each of them, including victories over former world champion Vince Phillips and winning the IBF super lightweight title against Lovemore N'Dou in Atlantic City New Jersey. Defending that title ounce in Manchester England. He also beat and became and the first person to have knocked down Ben Tackie.

Rematch with Tszyu

Negotiations for a rematch with Tszyu had been taking place long before the fights with the aforementioned rivals. Tszyu, however, had his own health problems, and the fight kept being cancelled. First scheduled for Australia and then for Moscow, the rematch finally took place on November 6, 2004, in Phoenix, Arizona. Mitchell was floored four times in the second bout with Tszyu before being stopped in round three, losing by knockout.

Losses to Mayweather and Williams

On November 19, 2005, Mitchell was defeated by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in their 147-lbs. non-title bout in Portland, Oregon. Mayweather dropped Mitchell in the third round with a straight right hand to the head, and again dropped him in the sixth with a hook to the body, ending the fight. During his most recent bout - against Paul Williams in Reno, Nevada, on August 19, 2006 - Mitchell was knocked down in the third round, and three times in the fourth round. Referee Richard Steele stopped the bout at 2:57 when Mitchell arose wobbly from the final knockdown. Mitchell retired for good shortly thereafter.

Mitchell finished his professional boxing career of 57 wins and 6 losses, with 30 knockout wins.