Witter to fight unbeaten American? by David Statham Mar 27th 2008

While Demetrius Hopkins watches his Uncle Bernard prepare for his super-fight showdown with Joe Calzaghe on April 19th, he can only sit and wonder what might have been as he let the opportunity of having his own super-fight slip through his gloves. Demetrius was scheduled for a showdown against Bradford's Junior Witter on March 22nd but the ex-Golden Boy pulled the plug, due to a number of reported reasons. Whatever the real reason, be it fallouts or contract disputes, WBC light-welterweight champion Junior Witter was again the ‘forgotten man' left without an opponent and, probably more importantly, without HBO's US television coverage. Things aren't going right for the ‘Hitter' of late. The fight he craves against Ricky Hatton doesn't seem to be any closer to materialising. The ‘Hitman's' camp turned down a chance to meet the slick stylist and instead opted to fight Juan Lazcano in Manchester. But all is not lost for Junior because on March 8th Jose Luis Castillo had to pull out of his slated match up against unbeaten American Timothy Bradley, due to reported problems making the 10st limit. And according to the Sheffield Star, that late cancellation means that Bradley, the WBC World Youth light-welterweight title holder, could be Witter's next opponent. The 24 year old, who is ranked 24th in the world and has an unblemished record out of 21 fights (11 early), has yet to fight outside of California. This could mean an American appearance for Witter, whose first (and last) appearance in the States was against Lovemore N'dou; a WBC title eliminator which he won on points. US television coverage has proved to be as elusive for Witter as Ricky Hatton himself, but maybe HBO would be interested in an experienced campaigner against their own fast-rising popular opponent. (Rumours say that they aren't - Ed.) As of yet nothing has been finalised but who knows if Witter can out-punch Palm Springs' ‘Desert Storm' and achieve some US popularity in the process, maybe Hatton would be interested?

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