By Nate Anderson: Lightweight Amir Khan (20-1, 15 KOs) could become a future target for former World Boxing Council light welterweight champion Junior Witter (37-2-2, 22 KOs) if Khan should get by his next fight against WBA light welterweight champion Andriy Kotelnik on June 27th at the O2 Arena, in London. Witter told Steve Bunce on his Boxing Hour show today that he’ll be gunning for Khan if he defeats Kotelnik.
Witter, 35, thinks the fight could be setup between him and Khan and that he’d knock Amir out between the 1st and 3rd rounds. There’s no doubt that this would be a huge bout in England and possibly elsewhere in the world, because both Khan and Witter have a large following around the world.
Witter for years attempted to get Ricky Hatton to give him a fight, but with no luck. Hatton always had an excuse for not fighting Witter, saying that he didn’t like Witter constantly talking about him to the media. However, given that Hatton was showing no interest in fighting him, it seemed like the only avenue that Witter had to go about getting a fight with Hatton.
One could hardly blame Witter for using the tried and true method of getting a fight with a reluctant opponent like Hatton. It worked recently for British heavyweight David Haye, who without any real experience at all in the heavyweight level, was able to pressure IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko into giving him a shot at his titles.
In Hatton’s case, he refused to be pressured into a fight with Witter and the local boxing fans were the one to suffer for him not doing so. Hopefully, if Khan can beat Kotelnik in June, Khan won’t be the same way that Hatton was towards Witter.
However, Witter has a big fight coming up on July 11th against unbeaten American Devon Alexander (18-0, 11 KOs) for the vacant WBC light welterweight champion at the Bank Atlantic Center, in Sunrise, California. If Witter can’t win that fight, then it hardly matters what Khan does with Kotelnik, because there won’t be any real chance for a Khan-Witter fight at that point.
Witter was recently defeated by American Timothy Bradley by a 12-round split decision last year in May, a fight where Witter was knocked down in the 6th round and lost his WBC light welterweight title to Bradley. Recently, Bradley vacated that very same title to defend his WBO title rather than have to defend against the little known Alexander.
Barker Shooting for Fight With Macklin
Undefeated middleweight Commonwealth champion Darren Barker (20-0, 13 KOs) wants to add the British middleweight title to his growing collection and is looking at going after Matthew Macklin (24-2, 17 KOs) next. Barker, 27, is coming off an impressive 4th round TKO over Darren McDermott last Saturday night at the Colosseum, in Watford, England.
Barker dominated McDermott for all four rounds, punishing him with right hands, left hooks and jabs and giving him very little opportunities to land shots. In the 4th round, Barker dropped McDermott with a huge fight hand to the head in a British middleweight title eliminator bout.
McDermott staggered to his feet but the fight was quickly stopped at that point by the referee. Barker is hoping to make the fight happen by September or October if possible. He doesn’t want to wait longer than that for the fight.
Macklin, 27, hasn’t fought since stopping Wayne Elcock in the 3rd round in March to capture the British middleweight title. In that fight, Macklin jumped all over Elcock from the opening bell and basically overwhelmed him in the process of getting the stoppage in the 3rd round.
Although a very gifted fighter, Macklin has had problems in the past losing to Andrew Facey and Jamie Moore. The loss to Moore occurred three years ago in a bout that Macklin ran out of gas in the 10th round and was knocked out by Moore.
Since then, Macklin has learned to pace himself a lot better. However, he hasn’t taken on anyone near the talent of Moore since that time. In moving up against Barker, Macklin will be taking on a very dangerous fighter.
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