By Jim Slattengren: Former World Boxing Council light welterweight champion Junior Witter (37-2-2, 22 KOs) still wants a bout with Ricky Hatton, despite Ricky being blown out of the water by Manny Pacquiao last Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada. Witter, now 35, is ranked #2 in the WBC light welterweight division, and is trying to get back his WBC belt that he lost in a 12-round split decision to current WBC champion Timothy Bradley in May 2008.
Witter doesn’t think that Hatton will want to fight him if he continues fighting, and thinks that Hatton may end up retiring rather than continuing on because of the huge amount of money he already has in the bank. Witter doesn’t feel that Hatton has a lot of other options available to him right now, because he would have to deal with Frank Warren if he wanted to fight Amir Khan, and Witter doesn’t see that happening.
In the end of the day, Witter feels that Hatton has only one real option available to him if he wants to get back on top and that’s by fighting him. However, don’t hold your breath on that happening, as Hatton has avoided fighting Witter like the plague, saying that he doesn’t want to reward Witter for the trash talking that he’s aimed at Hatton in the media.
Witter, though, was doing what all fighters do when they’re trying to get a fight with a top fighter that’s ignoring them. Witter would have been a tough opponent for Hatton even in Ricky’s prime because of Witter’s hand speed, movement and counter punching ability. Perhaps that’s why Hatton chose to never fought Witter?
As for Witter’s comments about it helping Hatton’s career if he fought him, I’d have to agree with him. Witter doesn’t punch hard, but he’s very talented and ranked high in the light welterweight division. If Hatton can beat Witter, it would undo some of the damage from Hatton’s loss to Pacquiao.
However, it would take much more than this for the boxing public to completely forget about Hatton’s loss to Pacquiao, and I doubt that Hatton will want to stick around long enough to try and accumulate enough victories to make people forget.
Witter said that he could tell who the winner was going to be in the first half minute of the Pacquiao-Hatton fight last weekend, after seeing how Hatton was getting drilled with right hooks and straight left hands to the head.
In looking at Witter’s style, especially his elusiveness and hand speed, it’s hard to see a one-dimensional fighter like Hatton beating Witter even in his prime. Witter seems like a more complete fighter with many more dimensions than the 30-year-old Hatton.
Witter prefers to fight on the outside where he can use his hand speed, but he can also slug at times when he wants to. Hatton would have to learn how to fight an opponent like Witter before stepping foot in the ring with him, because I fear that Witter would have a good chance of knocking Hatton out almost as easily as Pacquiao did.
Perhaps for this reason, Hatton will likely never fight Witter. That’s too bad, because it’s a fight that could only help Hatton at this point in his career.
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