EXCLUSIVE — By the time John Mitchell made his professional debut in his native Cork in 2019, the European Championships contender had become a multiple Irish champion and tried to dissuade himself from pursuing the sport he loves. He took a photo of his face after the first fight of his long amateur career to remind himself not to return to the cage, then snapped another selfie when he fought again six weeks later.
Years on, the excitingly powerful lightweight has been a sparring partner for Conor McGregor and has just returned from training at Thailand's famed Tiger Muay Thai, working with head of boxing John Hutchinson, the striking coach of Petr Yan, one of McGregor's fellow ex-UFC champions.
"So much has changed in my life," says Mitchell. "Back then, I was living in Cork with my mother. When I look at my first pro fight, I'm sure at the time I thought I was very good, but when I look back on it, you're like, 'That wasn't great'. But I was really happy with how it went. Now I have a calm confidence, but when I was younger, I was brash and cocky. Now I love being in the changing room and getting into the cage."
Mitchell, whose father and grandfather are not shy to give him their opinions as former boxers, was dubbed 'The Irish Golovkin' by Hutchinson after their session — a reference to boxing great Gennady Golovkin after a training experience Hutchinson says was "unreal".
"Not only is he an amazing coach, but sometimes the style of a coach really suits a fighter," he says. "I felt like everything he said to me matched what I do. He gave me a lot of belief because he's coached a lot of elite PFL fighters."
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One influence who fits that description is Brendan Loughnane, last year's featherweight recipient of the $1 million prize awarded to the winners of each division in the annual PFL final. Mitchell will earn himself the opportunity to compete in that tournament if he wins three fights in PFL Europe, starting with his debut against Geysim Derouiche in Berlin, when he can progress to the playoff round in Paris in September. A potential European final in Dublin in December is sure to be well-populated by his supporters.
"Guys like Brendan were saying the PFL is amazing and I've been saying over the past year that it's one of the best leagues in the world," says Mitchell, who is one of three Irish fighters competing in the German capital on Saturday, alongside bantamweight Frans Mlambo and featherweight Dylan Tuke.
"I had a lot of amateur pedigree and I've always been careful throughout my pro career to make the right decisions about which major organisation I want to sign for. It's where I want to be in my career. Brendan is someone who motivates me a lot. If I can do as well as him, I'll be happy."
Mitchell, who answered a job advert to move to Dubai in 2021, will be fighting outside of the UAE and India for the first time since 2020 when he takes on Derouiche, a PFL debutant and professional boxer unbeaten in any discipline since 2017. Visualisation and psychology are important to Mitchell, as are sensory deprivation tanks that leave him floating in pitch black as part of a level of preparation that he says is akin to readying himself for five fights.
A brutal first-round win at an indoor stadium against home fighter Srikant Sekhar in New Delhi in March has helped, and he also likes the demands of the brisk PFL schedule. "As soon as I knocked out that last guy, all I thought was 'I've got to get ready for this guy,'" he grins.
"It's a marathon, not a sprint. I'm in the gym all the time, so getting fights in March, July and September was perfect for me. By Wednesday after the fight, I didn't know what to do with myself. I have no other habits — it's just this.
"I bet my life in Dubai is different to everyone else's here. The surroundings are nicer, the weather is nicer, but I'm just training every day and coaching, things like that. I love it here, it's a good life."
When he sparred with him in May 2021, McGregor — with his usual inimitable phrasing — publicly thanked Mitchell and called him a "big Cork horse box". The MMA megastar is a "legend" to Mitchell, who says the pair have exchanged messages since then, with McGregor congratulating him on "smashing that guy" after he beat Arbi Emiev the following month.
There was also a hint of the kind of attention McGregor receives in the build-up to the Sekhar fight. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime-experience," Mitchell reflects. "There was a lot of media. As soon as I got off the plane, there were cameras following me.
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"I was the token Irish lad. When you're an Irish lad and you live abroad — we're some lads for talking and we're some lads for fighting, as well. Having that back-and-forth is what I've done all of my life for fun. At every fight I say to myself 'I'm not going to talk' and then I end up talking.
"I nearly always have it in the cage. If we speak the same language, I'll give it a go. In the last fight, he kept telling me he was super strong and all this weird s***. So, when I picked him up against the cage I was like, 'Man, you feel weak'. Then I beat him, so I was correct."