By Aaron Klein: After last Saturday’s split decision loss to undefeated American Timothy Bradley (22-0, 11 KOs), a fiercely determined vowed to fight on, saying “I’m still going to carry on, no way am I retiring after that,” Witter said. “There’s a lot more in the tank. There are better nights for me to come and Junior Witter will be back – as a world champion.” To be sure, Witter, 34, still seems to have a lot in the tank based on the closeness of the fight against Bradley. If not for his tiring out in the last three rounds of the fight, Witter would have won the fight. Even then, Witter still came close to getting a draw.
The loss, however, does have a big impact on Witter’s career because he now is no longer in the running for a potential bout with Ricky Hatton. It was a long shot at best regardless of whether or not Witter won the fight, because Hatton had shown zero interest in fighting him all these years when Witter was winning constantly. Now that he’s lost to Bradley, obviously Hatton will use this as an excuse to side step Witter for the remainder of his career.
Witter is still very marketable despite the loss and is well known among boxing fans in the U.S and Canada, two huge markets for boxing. At 34, however, Witter can ill afford to wait for Bradley to give him a rematch if it means having to wait around for a year while Bradley fights other fighters in the WBC. Witter could attempt to move over to the WBA or IBF, where he could take on champions Andreas Kotelnik or Paulie Malignaggi. Witter has already proven that he can beat Kotelnik, whom he defeated by a close 12-round unanimous decision in July 2005. Though the prospect of fighting Kotelnik would be a lot less interesting than a fight with Malignaggi, Witter would at least be able to land another title in the process.
I highly doubt that Malignaggi would choose to fight Witter, mainly because he seems intent on fighting his mandatory’s while holding out hope that Hatton may look in his direction for a possible fight. Witter, though, would be a very risky fight for Malignaggi and he probably understands this and wouldn’t want to give him a chance to take his title. If Witter isn’t able to land a fight against either Malignaggi, Bradley or Kotelnik, then there’s always a chance that Ricardo Torres, the WBO light welterweight champion, might be interested in a fight with him. This, too, would be a very winnable fight for Witter.
However, there’s a high chance that Torres won’t be champion for too much longer, because he has a rematch set with Kendall Holt coming up in July, and it’s unclear whether Torres can once again beat Holt. Hold probably wouldn’t be interested in fighting someone as tough as Witter, who in many ways mimics his elusive fighting style, only better. What this means, of course, is that Witter may likely have to work his way back into title contention by beating the top contenders in the WBC (if he still wants to remain in the division, that is).
The number #2 challenger unfortunately is Hatton, who will never in a million years fight Witter, so he’s out for potential opponent. After him, there’s Devon Alexander, a former amateur star who probably shouldn’t be ranked this high at this early stage in his career. This would be another winnable fight for Witter, who then would automatically be right back in line for another title shot against Bradley. As for Hatton, he’ll likely not choose to fight Bradley despite holding the top ranking in the division.