Witter early...or Harris on points by Terry Dooley Aug 31st 2007

After years spent on the sidelines of the light-welterweight division Junior Witter's patience is beginning to pay-off with a fight against the still dangerous ‘Vicious' Vivian Harris at the Doncaster Dome this September. This is more than just a defence of Witter's WBC light-welterweight title but, rather, a chance for him to remind people why he was considered a danger man for long periods of his career. With the signing of Ricky Hatton versus Floyd Mayweather and the Joe Calzaghe versus Mikkel (pronounced Miggel) Kessler fight on the horizon it could be the case that people are overlooking this important bout. In many ways it has all the ingredients needed to be a fine encounter. Both men need a big win to reignite their top-level careers. Both men have, arguably, seen better days with their styles and in-ring ways seemingly torn and frayed around the edges. Finally, and most importantly, the styles of both men should gel nicely to provide us with a fight to savour. This is a crossroads bout between two fighters who have been maligned off the back of two defeats.  Many have not, nor ever will, forget the prolonged world championship staring contest that took place when Witter and Zab Judah met in the year 2000.  Equally many people remember Harris for his laughable showing against Carlos Maussa. A fight in which Harris shot his bolts early and was pounded into submission by the wildly erratic Maussa in 2005. Since that night against Judah Witter has played it by-the-book and decided that a short-notice job against a weight-drained Miguel Cotto for the WBO title was not worth the risk involved – a risk that amounted to losing his ranking for a title shot despite a title shot, against a high-ranking fighter in possession of said title, falling right into his lap – and probably watched with wry bemusement as stand-in puncher Ricardo Torres gave Cotto all he could handle. Since then Witter has, to his credit, come through the hardest part of his career: the nightmarish purgatory of contention is behind him.  Jamie Moore, for one, can attest to the frustration that comes when you crack the world rankings yet find no one wants to tackle you in your quest to crack onto world title shots. You often find a fighter withering on the vine as he waits for his time to come. Or, alternatively, one can find oneself ripped from the vine in much the way Frankie Randall was when he lost to Primo Ramos. Holding a title should have liberated Witter and reintroduced the puncher who rose through the ranks. So far, though, this has yet to be the case. Witter, seen by many as the epitome of boxing skill, if not orthodoxy, struggled to impress in his title winning effort against DeMarcus Corley at London's Alexandra Palace.  Witter also failed to pull up any trees in his first defence as he dispatched his challenger Arturo Morua, that was a plus, in nine messy rounds in January, this was a minus, of this year. One could almost be forgiven for forgetting how Witter got to this point but this writer would never presume to assume that Witter's title road was anything less than a hard one for the fighter to tread, it was also a track he trod with resolution. A premature and poor title challenge to the overrated, how Witter must regret not doing more in that fight, Zab Judah left Witter taking the A-roads for a portion of his career but one could not ignore the 15-fight stoppage streak Witter put together after that loss. It was not quality opposition the whole way but, in his standout bout during that period, Witter annihilated European level operator Giuseppe Lauri after two round of sadistic shellacking. Finally, it seemed, the boxing world was ready to embrace Junior but, as he had done before, he failed a big USTV chance by failing to truly get to grips with Lovemore N'dou in a WBC title eliminator over in the USA.  For many that fight was a Witter master class. It could be argued, though, that in scoring early knockdowns (Lovemore was down in rounds three and four) then deflating to a lopsided decision win Witter failed to truly seize his big moment with both hands. A smattering of boos greeted his showboating as the US fans showed that the Sheffield-trained showman was not to their liking. Still, Witter scored a solid pair of wins over Andreas Kotelnik and Colin Lynes after that fight. In fact these wins could be boosted given the recent form and performances of both men. Although it is hard to judge boxing that way when the case could be that both fighters improved after their twelve rounds with Witter. Either way Witter emerged from those fights with two respectable scalps on his record.  Unfortunately, for this writer, this was around the time when Witter lost his focus as a fighter. Seemingly he now expected KO's to come rather than working for them. His reflexes seemed less viper like and more than one fighter told me that Witter was bored with his progress thus far. Mick Hennessy has steadied the ship by not only securing Witter his title fights but, also, ensuring that Witter gets home support whenever he fights. This will be crucial in the Harris fight. Hopefully, after a long time waiting for the glory nights, Witter and his fans will turn out in style for this his biggest test thus far. It will be especially hard for Junior if he fails to see it as his biggest career test by looking beyond it.  For a long time Witter felt that he was denied a rightful shot against Ricky Hatton. Witter's vehemence in this claim has only been matched by Hatton's ambivalence to Witter as a person. At times, particularly before recent fights, Witter has seemed to lose focus a little as he spits his fury about not getting a fight with Hatton. Only this week the ‘H' on his lips has been Hatton's and not Harris'.  There is a degree of sympathy to be put forward for Witter but there is also a sense that Hatton grasped the pragmatics of the sport and grasped the nettles of PR early on. Upon hearing Witter's complaints, the song ‘Nobodies Fault but Mine' pops into my mind. Led Zeppelin's avalanche of sound and fury with the nagging refrain of “Nobodies fault but mine”, a sentiment that could be applied to Witter. For years we have heard the sound of his voice and the fury of his sense of injustice at missing the big fights yet, as the song goes, Junior only has himself to blame. His conduct when interrupting an interview between Hatton and Jon Thaxton after their tough British title fight grated with many. His disparaging assessment of the Hatton wins over Kostya Tszyu and Jose Luis Castillo angered some fans. All this, combined with his aloof personally, helps form the impression that he wants the mountain to come to Muhammad rather than accepting that he is not owed a money-spinning fight with Hatton. It is time for Witter to let his fists do the talking and to be fair he has done that once before, he chomped down on the bitter aftertaste of the Judah fight, when he was a virtual pariah in some boxing circles, and came through to become a title holder. That shows gumption and courage; we also know that Witter has class and power. The mixture of these qualities, woven with the intricate punching patterns he produces, will get the fans behind Witter once again and give his voice resonance as he bids for the fights that will secure him financially (after all, despite the romance, lets not forget why fighters are in the sport). For the fans of Witter this could be a big chance to see your man defend his title on UK soil against a very credible challenger. Witter may find himself in a fight with a man who has the orthodox style, economic footwork and straight shots required to beat him. At some point he may well need the twelfth man of the crowd to pull him through. To this end you should migrate to Doncaster in numbers to cheer your man on. A point's defeat is possible for Witter, he fights less and less as the fight goes on and this hardly prodigious work rate could undo him again. On the other hand he has power aplenty in both hands and logic says that it will either be Witter early or Harris on points. The fight takes place next Friday, the 7th of September, at the Doncaster Dome and tickets are available from the ticket line number on 01302 370 777 (with that many 7's Witter should have luck on his side).

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To each their own May 9th 2008, 05:43:36 by neckodeemus Hello Paul, A bit late in the day this reply but I would say that the whole point of writing is to exhibit a personal style. To that end I use the same style on BBN as I used in my personal writing, I see no need to change one for the other. I don't read a lot of boxing writing in general. I brought Hatton in because the two names are now linked in many people's minds. Jamie Moore was used as an example not of world class but of how hard it is to crack that class. As Witter found out by being left in the cold too long. I feel you already had your criticism in mind before taking in my point. Overall I take on board what you have to say but feel that a Lancashire writer writing about a Yorkshireman is not a sign of one-City bias. Cheers, Terry   Poor Sep 2nd 2007, 08:27:50 by paulsmith Never liked your style of writing Terence it comes across as if you are trying to more intelligent than you actually are? Your biased writing style (introducing Manchester fighters into articles they dont belong apart from Hatton in this case) and regurgutating the Zab Judah waffle only highlights your incompetence as a "wanna be" writer,lacking the knowledge and inspiration to produce something more original. PS Jaime Moore has a long way to go before he reaches anywhere near World class and for every Zab Judah there is a Scott Dixon.Zab Judah a destructive force at the time ,Scot Dixon had lost 4 fights previous to Moore.Moore loses to Ossie Duran oh! you did forget to mention that. Look up articles by Ron Lewis and Gavin Evans and maybe you can learn a little from their fluid writing styles.