By Nate Anderson: Former WBC light welterweight champion Junior Witter (37-2-2, 22 KOs) takes on EBU (European) light welterweight champion Gianluca Branco (42-2-1, 22 KOs) in a scheduled 12-round bout on March 20th in Civitavecchia, Lazio, Italy. Witter, 34, ranked #2 in the World Boxing Council, #8 in the IBF and #11 in the WBO light welterweight division, is making his 2nd fight since losing his WBC title in a 12-round split decision to American Timothy Bradley in May 2008.
Witter known as “The Hitter” feels confident enough in his own boxing skills to risk traveling to Italy to fight Branco in his neck of the woods, a place where foreign sometimes find themselves on the receiving end of controversial decisions – just ask Colin Lynes, who lost his EBU title to Branco by a 12-round split decision in May 2008, but looked to have fought well enough to easily beat the Italian fighter. Witter, however, probably won’t be taking chances of letting the fight go to the cards, and will be looking to take Branco out.
Before losing his title to Bradley in 2008, Witter had defended it twice, beating Arturo Morua and Vivian Harris. In Witter’s last fight, a 3rd round TKO over Victor Hugo Castro in November 2008, Witter knocked him down twice – once in the 2nd and another time3rd – with hard shots to the body and head.
After the 2nd knockdown of the fight in the 3rd, a beautiful left-right combination to the head, the fight was stopped by referee Mark Green at 1:10 of the round. Witter then made it known that he was back, saying “This is what I do. I go out and destroy people. I’m back. It was a slip and a blip on that night [referring to his 12-round decision loss to Bradley]. I’ll destroy anyone that gets in my way. I will be a two time champion.”
If successful against Branco, Witter hopes to fight Bradley in a rematch in the near future, and is even willing to travel outside of England to face Bradley in America.
Branco, 38, won the EBU title against Lynes in a 12-round split decision in May, 2008. Lynes boxed circles around the slower Branco, dominating all of the earlier rounds and continuing to control the bout up until 10th. Branco then came on landing some hard shots and doing enough to win the last rounds. However, Lynes did more than enough to get the win in my book.
Branco defeated Juho Tolppola by a 9th round stoppage in December 2008. The fight was stopped due to severe swelling on the right side of Tolppola’s head. Branco was troubled by the hard combinations from Tolppola in rounds one through three. After that, however, Branco took control over the fight using a hard jab and some nice combinations. Tolppola wore steadily after that, fading badly until being stopped in the 9th.
Witter, 34, has been defeated only twice in his career, losing by a 12-round decision to Zab Judah in June 2000 and then a 12 round split decision to Bradley in 2008. The fight with Bradley, a young 24-year-old with impressive hand speed and good power, was very close and minus the knockdown of Witter from a looping right hand from Bradley in the 6th, Witter could have easily have won the fight.
For the past several years, Witter has attempted to get a fight with Ricky Hatton. However, Hatton has dodged him, explaining his reasons for not wanting to fight Witter because he doesn’t like the way that Junior constantly goes after him in the media.
Some people feel that Hatton is afraid of Witter and is using an excuse to not have to fight him so as to avoid losing. To be sure, Witter has the kind of style that would give Hatton huge headaches if the two fighters were to ever meet in the ring. Unfortunately, due to Hatton’s reluctance to fight him, it doesn’t look like the two will ever fight.
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