News – Witter to Move Up to Welterweight Division?

By Sean McDaniel: Former World Boxing Council light welterweight champion Junior Witter (37-3-2, 22 KO’s) may be moving up to the welterweight division after having been stopped in the 8th round last Saturday night against Devon Alexander in a failed attempt to capture the vacant WBC light welterweight title.

Witter, 35, has fought most of his 12 year pro career as a light welterweight, so a move now at this stage in his career will be a huge gamble on his part. However, with two losses in his last three fights, Witter may not have much of a choice but to move up in weight and try starting over.

The advantages are obvious. Witter would no longer have to struggle to get down to 140 pounds and would thus be stronger than he’s been. Plus, the welterweight division is one of the weakest in boxing at this point, and Witter would have an excellent chance to compete with the lower quality fighters. Also, Witter would have a speed advantage over many of the welterweights in the top 15.

There are some negatives, though. He isn’t the most powerful of welterweights and would have to deal with big punchers like Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley, Andre Berto, Joshua Clottey and Selcuk Aydin. Witter would have to be 100% against fighters of this quality and couldn’t afford anymore physical breakdowns like he experienced against Alexander.

If Witter has an injury problem with his left elbow or hand, he needs to take some time off and heal before moving up in weight because he’ll need to be able to punch with power against the bigger fighters in the welterweight division.

Witter’s trainer Dominic Ingle thinks that a move up in weight will help Witter, according to The Star. “A win last November over Victor Castro (Witter stopped Castro in a third round TKO) in that division saw him [Witter] the speed and power he failed to produce when losing his crown to Tim Bradley and now against Devon Alexander,” Ingle said.

Ingle will be speaking to Witter’s promoter Mick Hennessy to discuss Witter moving up in weight.

As it turns out, Witter had been receiving treatment for his left elbow in the weeks prior to Witter’s fight with Alexander. The elbow was the reason that Witter quit on his stool following the 8th round last Saturday night against Alexander. However, Witter re-injured his left elbow in the 2nd round while throwing a jab. The injury forced Witter to fight as a southpaw and use his right hand for the jabbing instead. The injury took away much of Witter’s power and made it impossible for him to compete against the fast punches and high work rate of the younger Alexander.

Witter would still have a good chance to compete if he stayed at light welterweight, but he’d have to go after the weaker champions in the division like Amir Khan and Juan Urango and avoid Timothy Bradley and Alexander. Those are certainly winnable fights for Witter, but given his injury and his failed attempt at beating Bradley last year in May, in which Witter lost by a 12 round split decision, it would seem wiser for Witter to take things slowly and pick some easy wins against lesser fighters.

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