By David Lahr: In a fight card marred by disappointing bouts on Saturday night, Junior Witter (37-3-2, 22 KO’s) quit on his stool after the 8th in his bout against Devon Alexander (19-0, 12 KO’s) for the vacant World Boxing Council light welterweight title at the Agua Caliente Casino, in Rancho Mirage, California. Also on the same card, Nate Campbell (33-6-1, 25 KO’s) went to pieces after being cut over his left eye in the 3rd in his fight against WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (25-0, 12 KO’s), asking for the fight to be stopped after the 3rd round.
The referee obliged and stopped the bout in between rounds. Unlike other fighters who might have let their corner help try and stop the cut and continue on, Campbell seemed not interested in fighting any further after he was cut, repeating over and over again “I can’t see,” even when the blood was cleared away from his left eye.
As it turns out, the cut may have been the best thing for Campbell because it didn’t look like things were going his way against the younger, faster Bradley. Indeed, Campbell looked old, slow and was missing with a lot of his punches. He was unable to land any of his right hands and seemed to be in step slow against the faster Bradley.
In the 1st and 2nd rounds, Bradley attacked the slower, slightly heavy looking Campbell with blistering fast combinations to the body and head. Campbell was too slow to block the shots or answer back with any of his own. Campbell tried to land shots but missed more often than not by a mile. He looked old out there. There was a clash of heads early in the 2nd that seemed to upset Campbell a great deal, even though he had a big part in the head clash by lowering his head and coming forward.
In the final seconds of the round, Bradley landed a nice flurry of shots on the inside, none of which Campbell blocked. By the time that Campbell tried to answer back with a punch of his own, Bradley was already gone on the outside.
In the 3rd round, there was another clash of heads in the first minute of the round, which opened up a cut over Campbell’s left eye. As soon as the cut opened, Campbell lost his concentration and started looking at the referee to see what he would say. Bradley, however, stayed focused and took advantage of Campbell’s lack of concentration by unloading on him with a flurry of shots while Campbell covered up on the ropes.
In the last seconds, it looked as if Campbell was hurt by one of Bradley’s big shots and ready to go for a second there. After the round ended, Campbell shouted at his trainer that he couldn’t see. Campbell looked as if he didn’t want to even try to continue fighting. It was strange because it looked like he wanted no part in fighting anymore and was looking for a way out.
The ringside doctor then came in and stopped the fight. After the bout, Campbell argued with the referee David Mendoza, who said that the cut had been caused by a punch and not a head butt. Campbell rightfully so was angry about the missed call by the referee because on the replay, the punch – a right uppercut to the jaw – that the referee claimed had caused the cut, didn’t come anywhere close to Campbell’s left eye.
Mendoza stuck to his decision that the cut was caused by a punch, saying that he had to go by what he had last seen happen. Bradley said afterwards that he would be open to a rematch with Campbell, but said that the outcome would be the same next time. “As the rounds went by, he [Campbell] was getting older and older,” Bradley said. “It [the cut] didn’t even matter. He was going to get beat anyway.”
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The Witter-Alexander fight was fairly close at the time that Witter quit on his stool after the 8th round. Witter was still landing an occasional big shot and was holding his own for the most part. Although Witter had been hurt several times in the previous rounds by big shots from the normally weak punching Alexander. Witter said after the bout “My left elbow went out in the 4th. I couldn’t keep him off with my left hand. I pulled through it for a couple of rounds but the pressure got to me.”
Witter was correct about the pressure getting to him. He looked old against Alexander and couldn’t deal properly with his pressure. Usually, Witter is able to keep other fighters off him by fighting on the outside and using movement.
However, Alexander was too fast and powerful for Witter and was able to land big power shots from the outside and catch Witter with shots no matter what he tried to do. Alexander, 22, dominated the first two rounds against the 35-year-old Witter. At the end of the 2nd round, Alexander staggered Witter with a big right hand in the final seconds. In the 3rd round, Witter was cut on the side of his right eye.
Unlike Campbell, Witter stayed calm and didn’t disintegrate and fall to pieces after being cut. He fought reasonably well until getting tagged with another big right hand from Alexander. From that point on, Witter started clinching frequently in an attempt to slow Alexander down. It worked, but not enough for Witter to win many rounds or make the fight competitive.
Witter came back in the 4th round landing some nice left hands to the head. When Witter was throwing a lot of punches, he looked better than Alexander. The problem was Witter wasn’t consistently throwing enough punches to keep the fight close, and was giving away rounds.
It’s hard to say why. Age obviously is something I would look at when wondering about Witter’s poor work rate, but then again, Witter has this same problem against Zab Judah nine years ago in his 12 round decision loss in 2000. In the first minute of the 5th round, Alexander hurt Witter with a big left hook that had Witter holding on for the next minute.
Witter finally recovered in the last 30 seconds of the round, landing some nice shots of his own. Rounds six through eight were very close with Witter appearing to win the 7th and Alexander the 6th and 8th rounds. Witter began to bleed from his mouth in the 7th round, but he was still fighting remarkably well.
In the 8th round, Witter received a warning for holding by the referee, even though Witter wasn’t holding all that much. I think ultimately this was one of the reasons that Witter decided to quit in between rounds. Witter didn’t want to fight Alexander on the inside and was clinching him each time Alexander would get close. With the referee threatening to take points away, it looked like Witter was going to start being penalized in the later rounds and he probably didn’t want to lose the fight in this manner and decided to quit.
Witter looked uncomfortable after receiving the warning from the referee because he was now forced to fight Alexander, a superior inside fighter, on the inside or else move more. Perhaps if Witter was younger, he would have adapted by staying on the move and keeping Alexander off of him.
However, after the 8th round, Witter suddenly got up off his stool and quit. It was a strange ending because like I said, the fight was hardly a one-sided affair at the time that Witter decided he’d had enough.
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