The New Boss - Junior Witter by Terry Dooley Sep 19th 2007

In sweeping aside Vivian Harris with a murderous left hook in Doncaster earlier this month, Junior Witter also swept away the memories that have plagued his career in recent years. These memories were misty and water-coloured yawns for many due to the fact that Junior had failed to impress, and for many bored in the process, during his first major fight in boxing. This was when he faced Zab Judah over twelve asinine rounds in 2000. Now, however, Witter has done what all the best fighters do in metaphorically landing the final blow on Judah. Shortly after Witter announced himself as the division number one, although not champion, Judah was a division above struggling to impress in a comeback fight against Edwin Vasquez. Judah looked really poor in that fight and Witter may have greeted the news of Zab's result with a wry smile; he who laughs last has the ears of his listeners after all. Few, Witter aside, probably would have imagined this possible after that derisible night in Glasgow. Slowly but surely Witter has established a hold over the light-welterweight division. A division Kostya Tszyu bounced Zab Judah out off before being rudely mugged aside himself by Ricky Hatton, who is now at welterweight - for two fights at least. Junior Witter has popped-up on various TV news shows to accept his acclaim. For too long Witter seemed to have a one-track mind, most of his utterances centred on his sense of injustice at not having fought Ricky Hatton. Now, though, Witter seems to have laid that ghost to rest. He is wearing his WBC belt well after a tough coronation and a distracted first public engagement as titleholder against Arturo Morua. We seem to have been meeting the new boss since the introductions were made for the Harris fight, Witter looked like a man who knew his moment had come. In the fight itself Witter did have his potentially ragged moments only to close the show in a way, for the first time in a few fights, that left many saying “we want more of this guy!”. So it is more we hope to get from Junior. Witter is the man in possession; the fighters have to come to him if they want one of the big titles. Naturally, Witter eyes unification, a bout with Paulie Malignaggi has been discussed. If it is made it could be a case of ‘meet the old boss, same as the new boss' as this is a match made in the divorce courts. Paulie likes to box and works well off the back foot. Witter is, in essence, a banger who lets people come onto his hard shots. A fight between the two could be awful, a 36-minute staring contest without the raw human drama. A fight with Malignaggi could leave Junior maligned once again.  If Witter wants to take two steps forward and one step back then by all means the fight should be made. Why not put it on at Madison Square Garden and show it on HBO? The twitching of arousal Junior is now causing will be killed quicker than the late-night utterance of the sentence, “do it quietly, the kids are next door”. In order for Witter to bring the excitement you need to bring it to Witter. Junior is better when getting down and dirty than when coyly eyeing his foe from the other side of the ring. To that end Ricardo Torres (why are guys called Ricardo invariably wild fighters, is it a life spent living up to that ridiculously macho forename?) would be a good match for Junior. Torres' recent fight with Kendal Holt was a case of something unseen becoming bigger than it actually is. People cry robbery because Torres stopped Holt in the eleventh round in Columbia.  As it transpired the scoring was tight rather than typed out pre-fight. The stoppage was debateable rather than corrupt filibustering set to a preordained conclusion. Holt looked hurt; he did not regroup adequately and was stopped. Call the cops.  Torres was there to be beaten, he does a lot of things wrong and, to my mind, he is the current Joker in the pack in much the way Carlos Maussa was during his title raindrop. Someone needs to add Torres' scalp, and his belt, to their hand.  What Torres does do right is that he does everything wrong defensively whilst bringing pressure and commitment to his shots. When Vivian finally committed to Witter he was taken out, the same would happen to Torres who is marginally rated on the basis of wobbling a weight drained Cotto in an exciting fight. Heroes are made cheaply these days, perhaps because there are so few to cling onto. Overall, though, Witter must be a content man right now. He no longer has to call Hatton out; people are doing that on his behalf. He no longer has to struggle to put names into the hat of potential opponents; people have to fight him. Furthermore he now seems like a relaxed fighter enjoying the fruits of the graft he has put into his craft.  It must be good to be King.

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