By Jim Dower: Former World Boxing Council light welterweight champion Junior Witter (37-2-2, 22 KOs) is picking Kendall Holt to defeat Timothy Bradley (23-0, 11 KOs) in the WBC/WBO unification bout this Saturday night at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada. Witter, 35, knows Bradley first hand, having lost his WBC title to him by a close 12-round split decision a year ago in May 2008.
Despite losing to Bradley, Witter still feels that Holt will take this Saturday night’s bout, saying Steven Bunce on His Boxing Hours show “Bradley is a decent fighter but he does nothing particularly extravagant and nothing particularly special.”
Witter could be a little bitter about the loss to Bradley, however, because he was unable to land a rematch with him to try and rectify things. Since losing to Bradley, Witter has fought once, stopping Victor Hugo Castro in the 3rd round in November 2008.
At 35, Witter is going to have to speed things up if he wants to get another title shot before he ages too much more. Ranked number #2 in the WBC, Witter could be getting another shot in the near future if he can keep winning.
David Haye Out to “Save Boxing” By Beating Wladimir Klitschko
After months of working with on negotiations with IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, David Haye has finally struck pay dirt by signing this morning for a June 20th bout with the younger Klitschko brother. As of now, no site has been picked for the location of the bout but both Hamburg and Berlin are being looked at.
Haye: “I’m taking this fight to save boxing,” referring to his popular style of fighting in contrast to the rather boring style of heavyweight champions Wladimir and his brother Vitali Klitschko, along with the two other heavyweight champions Ruslan Chagaev and Nikolay Valuev.
Together, the trio has a virtual stranglehold on the four heavyweight titles, and each has taken a lot of criticism for their mostly dull fights while holding the heavyweight titles.
Haye, 28, has only limited experience in world title competition, fighting three times in world title bouts as a cruiserweight and winning all three by knockout. However, Haye has a history of a weak chin and he may have problems if Wladimir decides to forgo his usual safety first style of fighting and come out throwing leather.
If that happens, the fight comes down to whoever lands first, because Wladimir also has a weak chin and has been knocked out several times in his 13 year boxing career.
Haye recently moved up to the heavyweight division on a permanent basis in November, stopping journeyman Monte Barrett in the 5th round. Haye put Barrett down three times before the fight was stopped. However, Haye had a close call when he was dropped by a left hand from Barrett in the 5th, which the British referee immediately ruled as a slip.
While Haye was down, Barrett landed another hard left a fraction of a second later, hurting Haye and making it necessary for Haye to stay down for a lengthy time to recover from the shot. It’s unclear which punch hurt Haye more – the first or the second left hand. Nevertheless, it affirmed in many people’s eyes the perception that Haye has a weak chin and can’t take a hard punch without going down.