Sharkies Machine
By Frank Gonzalez Jr.
May 11th, 2008
“Upstart Tim Bradley Takes WBC Title from Junior Witter”
Photo: TOM CASINO/SHOWTIME (Click on pictures for larger view)

Congratulations to young Timothy Bradley (22-0, 11 KO’s), who went to Nottingham England as the WBC’s #1 contender and took Junior Witter’s (36-2-2, 21 KO’s) WBC Super Lightweight Title by a Split Decision victory. The twilight zone official scores were 115-113 for Witter, 114-113 and 115-113 for Bradley. I had it a blowout for Bradley.

Bradley must have made one hell of an impact on the WBC with his recent Decision wins over Donald Camarena and Miguel Vasquez. Maybe it was his TKO 5 win over Nasser Athumani in April of last year because I can’t figure what justifies Bradley being ranked number one by the WBC.

Bradley’s never beaten any of the top ten contenders. How did Bradley manage to pass over Ricky Hatton, Devon Alexander, Jungbum Kim, Souleymane M’Baye, Demetrius Hopkins, Lovemore N’Dou, Lamont Peterson, Colin Lynes and Randall Bailey all of whom comprise the top of the WBC’s Super Lightweight rankings, none of whom he’s fought?

As an American, I don’t get to see too many of Junior Witter’s fights, the last one I saw was a long time ago, when Zab Judah floored him en route to beating him convincingly (by UD 12) back in 2000. Since then, Witter’s beaten De Marcus Corley (by UD 12, to win the vacant WBC title) and Vivian Harris (KO 7), both of whom had quality but have been past their best days for some time. He also beat Lovemore N’dou (by UD 12) and Andreas Kotelnik (by UD 12) in 2005.
What I saw from Witter on Saturday wasn’t very impressive. With all of his assets, he never put any offense together and seemed reluctant to show any aggression, even after being downed in the sixth. His whole approach was to run, counter and clinch. That don’t win rounds, especially when those counter punches are rarely thrown and when they are, they don’t land.

In the first round, Witter scored a left, switched from orthodox to southpaw, and landed a nice counter after Bradley landed a right. Witter looked big and Bradley looked small. I gave the first round to Witter, since he landed the better punches.

After that, Bradley did more scoring in every round and scored a knockdown in the sixth, with an overhand right that cracked Witter on top of his temple. Bradley did a good job pressuring Witter to make it a fight, while Witter was content to pose, paw his jab and clinch when Bradley got too close. Witter’s best punch of the fight was a left cross that happened to be the only clean punch he landed in the seventh round.

This was a very technical fight that saw Witter and Bradley dance around the ring, feeling each other out for way too long. Throughout the fight, the commentators kept saying that the fight was close but all I saw was Witter pawing his jab, backing up, clinching and slipping. What I rarely saw him do was throw any punches.

This was a dream fight for fans of technical boxers but hardly an entertaining fight in my estimate. Outside of the sixth round knockdown, there was hardly an exciting moment in this one. I prefer boxer/punchers or sluggers than to watch two technical boxers—unless they’re aggressive or at least fairly busy, they can get real boring, real fast. To Bradley’s credit, he provided most of the action.

Witter looked intimidated by the more determined Bradley. Bradley missed a lot of shots but he landed at least five times more than Witter did in any round save the first. There were rounds where Witter landed less than five punches.

For years I’ve been hearing how Witter wants to fight Ricky Hatton, who has made it clear that he will not fight Witter because, ‘he doesn’t like him.’ Did he like Floyd Mayweather Jr.? I don’t think so. I can’t imagine why Hatton wouldn’t want to fight Witter, especially after what I saw Saturday, when Timothy Bradley, the kid from out of nowhere, who is suddenly ranked number one by the WBC over a host of more deserving fighters, managed to go to Witter’s turf and win just about every round on my scorecard over Junior. Witter showed no power, no offense and no urgency to win, even after being floored in the sixth round.

For Witter, this loss could be a big step down. Witter has good boxing skills but for some reason, he was offensively anemic Saturday. I’d love to see him fight Ricky Hatton. It is the most logical match up for both of them at this point. It would definitely sell tickets. Witter can use some redemption after this lack luster performance against Bradley. Ricky’s a brawler, Witter’s a boxer, the one thing this fight wouldn’t be is boring.

For Bradley, this is the beginning of a promising career. I hope his handlers don’t put him in the, ‘Juan Diaz regimen’ by keeping him away from real challengers and milking the title for two years or more before defending it against a top notch, deserving fighter.

Now that Bradley is a “World champion” he should fight the best guys in the division and not hand picked has-beens or worse. Bradley has good boxing skills, instincts, stamina, pretty fast hands and showed good ring smarts. I’d like to see him fight Randall Bailey or Demetrius Hopkins but Ricky Hatton is the top guy in the division and is the top contender in the WBC now that Bradley is the champion. Bradley vs. Hatton would be an interesting clash of styles.

Too bad boxing isn’t based on anything that resembles a merit system. If it was, Bradley wouldn’t have been the WBC top contender until beating the top guys in the division and proving his worthiness of that status. It should be that in order to become the top contender, you’d have to fight all the top ten guys in the division and beat them in order to EARN a shot at a World Title.

* * *

Comments can be sent to dshark87@hotmail.com

Home About Us-Boxing  Directories Boxing Schedule Columnists Feedback Inside Coverage Local Scene Links Welcome Search InsideBoxing Join eGroup Submit News/Articles Tell Friends Copyright Notice