By Sean McDaniel: Former World Boxing Council (WBC) light welterweight champion Junior Witter (37-3-2, 22 KO’s) is making his long awaited comeback since being stopped by Devon Alexander in the 8th round a year ago in August 2009, and wants to go after the EBU welterweight title that is currently held by Matthew Hatton (40-4-2, 15 KO’s), the younger brother of Ricky Hatton. Witter, now 36, never had a bit of luck trying to get Ricky Hatton in the ring, and it’s likely he’ll have problems getting the younger Hatton in the ring as well. Matthew Hatton is coming off a 12 round decision win over Yuriy Nuzhnenko on July 16th, and is currently ranked at number #15 by the WBA in the welterweight division.

All Matthew has to do is keep winning and he’ll get an eventual good money fight against the current WBA champion Vyacheslav Senchenko, who Hatton would have a decent chance of beating. However, if Hatton were to take a fight against the still crafty Witter, there’s an excellent chance that Hatton would lose that fight and along with it his chance for the money fight against Senchenko. This is why I seriously doubt Matthew Hatton will face Witter unless he absolutely has to in order to keep his EBU title. Even then, Hatton might be much better of chucking away the EBU title and focusing on beating some more fringe welterweight contenders like himself so that he can continue to move up the World Boxing Association rankings. Witter is just too dangerous for a slow-footed fighter like Hatton, who has almost zero power to speak of.

In an article at Thesun.co.uk, Witter says “Hatton’s the European champion. I don’t see winning one of those [the Commonwealth or the EBU welterweight titles] being a problem at all. Then I want to move up to the world scene and get a title shot. Andre Berto’s WBC title is the one I want, but there are other champions out there.” While I think Witter would easily beat Matthew Hatton, if he was to ever get the chance, I think Berto would absolutely destroy Witter without any problems. Witter is too thin and not in the same class as a fighter like Berto. Last year, Witter got wore down by Devon Alexander and stopped in the 8th. Alexander was hurting him with hard shots and starting to get to him at the time the fight was stopped.

Witter chased Ricky Hatton for years without any luck in getting him to fight. Many boxing fans felt that Hatton was afraid to fight Witter. It’s too bad the fans never got to see this fight. It would be great if Matthew Hatton stepped up and took on Witter, but it’s really doubtful he would want to do this. Hatton was schooled two years ago by Craig Watson in a 12 round decision loss, but Witter is probably even better than Watson. I just can’t see Hatton agreeing to take on Witter in what would be an almost certain loss for him.