By William Mackay: Former WBC light welterweight champion Junior Witter (40-5-2, 22 KO’s) will be facing British welterweight champion Colin Lynes (36-9, 12 KO’s) next month on May 12th at the Hillsborough Leisure Centre, in Sheffield, Yorkshire, U.K.

Witter, now 38, has seen his once successful career as the World Boxing Council 140 pound champion plummet downward since losing his title to Timothy Bradley by a 12 round split decision in May 2008. Since that loss, Witter has been beaten in three out of his last seven fights, and the only wins he’s gotten during that time have come against 2nd tier opposition.

Witter was beaten by Devon Alexander by an 8th round stoppage in August 2009, and then shockingly defeated by Victor Lupo Puiu after moving up to the welterweight division in February 2011. To show you how good Puiu is, he was easily beaten in his next fight by the light hitting welterweight contender Antonin Decarie by a 12 round unanimous decision. In Witter’s fight after that, he lost to Yasine El Maachin by a three round majority decision in the PrizeFighter welterweight tourney last year in June.

Witter has won his last three fights since then, defeating Kevin McIntyre, Nathan Graham and Arvydas Trizno. As you can tell, Witter has dramatically downsized his opposition from world class opponents to 2nd tier in order to try and find some success. Witter will continue with that trend next month when he challenges for the British welterweight title against the 34-year-old Lynes, who himself is coming off of an impressive 12 round majority decision over British champion Lee Purdy last November.

Lynes is a decent fighter, but very beatable. If Witter can’t even beat him, then he needs to sit down and think seriously about retiring from boxing because he has nowhere to go if he can’t even beat domestic level opposition. He can’t move back down to light welterweight without likely draining himself in the process, and he clearly doesn’t have the chin or the power to compete at welterweight on the world scene. His reflexes aren’t what they once were now that he’s nearing 40, and he’s getting hit with shots now that he never would have earlier in his career.