By Eric Thomas: WBC light welterweight champion Junior Witter (36-2, 21 KOs) lost a narrow 12-round split decision to undefeated American challenger Timothy Bradley (22-0, 11 KOs) at the Nottingham Arena, Nottingham, in Nottinghamshire, England, on Saturday night. Witter, 34, was knocked down once in the fight after getting hit with a big sweeping right hand in the 6th round. Witter trailed in the first half of the fight, looking four of six rounds. He then rallied and appeared to win rounds seven though nine. After the 9th round, however, Witter faded badly and allowed Bradley to retake command of the fight.

In turn, Bradley would go on to win the remaining rounds 10 through 12. The final judges’ scores were 115-113, 114-113 for Bradley and 112-115 for Witter. I personally scored it 115-113 for Bradley. I had hoped that Witter would win the fight because I wanted him to continue exerting pressure on former light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton, who has been reluctant to fight Witter for some reason. With this loss, this now gives Hatton an even better excuse not to fight Witter. Though I highly doubt Hatton will get anywhere near the new champion Bradley, who like Witter, would box circles around Hatton and very likely knock him out like Floyd Mayweather Jr. did in their recent championship bout in December.

In spite of the fact that he lost the fight, Witter, 34, has nothing to be ashamed of. He performed well up until the 10th round when he seemed to run out of gas, allowing Bradley to walk away with the decision. If not for the flash knockdown, this fight would have been ruled a draw and Witter would have been able to keep his title. As it is, I’m hoping Bradley gives Witter a rematch because the fight was far from a convincing win. Bradley doesn’t have a lot of options other than Witter as far as big money fights go, because the number #2 challenger in the division is Hatton, and he’s never going to fight either Bradley or Witter. Behind Hatton is #3 Devon Alexander, a weak-punching, loud-squealing young fighter, who isn’t well known and clearly not ready for the likes of Bradley.

Witter came out flat-footed in the 1st round, switching from southpaw to orthodox fighting stance repeatedly in the round. It didn’t seem to have much of an effect on Bradley, who was more concerned with trying to take Witter’s head of with right hands. Bradley landed some good shots in the round, but Witter appeared to win it with his hooks.

Bradley fought effectively in rounds two and three, charging forward constantly and hitting Witter with some big right hands. Bradley would often duck his head down like a Billy Goat and charge forward throwing punches as he went. Because of this rough style of attacking, naturally, the two fighters bumped heads frequently. Bradley, 24, landed some particularly hard right hands in the 4th round that seemed to get Witter’s full attention. Witter still answered back with some excellent left hooks that caught Bradley on many of his wild attacks.

Witter came back in the 4th round and appeared to win the round with his left hooks which he used to pick Bradley off as he attacked. There wasn’t much variation with Bradley’s offense; He’d come straight at Witter each time in a vertical line with his head down almost like a football player charging off the line. Witter, who’s used to fighting more stand up European-type fighters, probably has never seen this style of fighting before and didn’t know what to make of it.

In the 5th and 6th rounds, Bradley continued to fight small, standing low with his constant forward motion attack. Witter would catch him often with shots but Bradley’s powerful right hand was finding Witter more and more. Near the end of the sixth round, Bradley caught Witter with a big sweeping right hand that dropped Witter to the canvas. Bradley wasn’t able to add to the knockdown because the round ended. I doubt that he could have done much because Witter’s wasn’t really hurt, just surprised by the punch. Up until then, Bradley had been throwing mostly straight rights but this one was almost like a woman’s softball pitch and had a strange motion that you wouldn’t expect from an accomplished boxer like Bradley. Indeed, I mostly see amateur fighters or C-level fighters punching in that fashion, so it seemed odd to see Bradley unleash a big punch like that all of a sudden out of the blue. It was very effective, no doubt.

As if to let Bradley know that it was a fluke, Witter came out strong in the 7th round and promptly easily won the round. Bradley began to develop swelling on the corner of his left eye, whereas Witter started developing swelling under his right eye.

In rounds eight and nine, Witter continued to land effectively, looking much younger than his 34 years and seeming like the much better fighter of the two. Bradley was now just following Witter around and taking shots without being able to get off his own punches. Witter’s movement had something to do with that because Bradley seems to fight more effectively when he has a stationary target in front of him rather than someone who is moving all the time like Witter was in these two rounds.

After the 9th round, Witter suddenly looked very tired and didn’t seem to have much left. It was startling how fast he lost it because he looked great in the 9th round, yet a round later he looked like an old fighter, someone who is getting up there in years and is past it. He looked as if it was all he could do to lean forward and paw with his jabs. He pretty much stopped throwing any kind of meaningful punches and essentially just gave away rounds ten through twelve to Bradley.

Seeing that Witter had stopped punching, Bradley was only too happy to once again restart his offense and found some limited success landing an occasional right hand in the last three rounds. There were a lot of clinches during the last few rounds, most of it initiated by Witter, who looked like he was just trying to run out the clock any way he could. Bradley landed some really big right hands in the 11th round, but in the twelfth, he didn’t get much of a chance because Witter stayed on top of him, clinching often and running out the clock in the round.