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should junior witter fear the unknown soldier?
Junior Witter has it all to fight for this Saturday as he takes on the lightly regarded and even lesser known American Timothy Bradley at the Nottingham Arena on Saturday. In many ways it is a ‘high risk, uncertain reward' bout for Junior, but one that is to be televised live on ITV.
Witter has been speaking about his desire for a fight with a certain Ricky Hatton for as long as many people can remember, like any constant exposure to noise the appeals sank into the background din for a long time but now, finally, it seems that people outside the UK are sitting up and taking notice of Witter's clamour for a Hatton bout.
Truly the chance has arrived for Witter to make a definitive statement, a statement many felt was made in his previous win over Vivian Harris, although in many ways, due to the disconcerting agoraphobia of his fans, the Harris fight was akin to a brilliant statement made to an empty room, a lone voice shouting in the dark of Doncaster. (It was transmitted to people by the medium of television, albeit satellite, think on - Ed.) Now, however, Witter will have a prime audience, a sizeable crowd, and a chance to really capture the imagination of the general public.
However, therein lies the rub, Witter has been given these opportunities previously only to fail to impress. He fought an unbeaten US fighter once before, in Zab Judah, only to perform so tepidly that Junior's name became synonymous with the phrase “we would prefer not to” when it came to giving out further US exposure.
Not only that, Witter also failed to grab mainstream appeal when appearing on ITV in 2005 versus Andreas Kotelnik in a fight that was for the purists only. Overall, then, Witter's previous ‘exposure' fights have seen him expose the aspects of his game people do not want to see.
Can Saturday change all this and force a belated Hatton-Witter showdown? Again the onus lies on the shoulders of Witter. Impress on ITV and the call for the Hatton bout goes mainstream. If he boxes badly versus Bradley the Hatton Camp can shrug their shoulders and point out that Witter's most entertaining work comes outside the ring, and only then when talking about Hatton.
Consequently Saturday presents the TV viewers with a chance to see a focused Witter march into the last chance saloon; he must blow Bradley aside and ask Hatton outside. The only person standing in Witter's way is this little known, therefore enigmatic, Timothy Bradley.
Bradley's nickname is ‘Desert Storm'; thus far the only allusion possible is that the nickname refers to the tumbleweed that drifts across the screen during his little seen bouts.
Or, perhaps, the name is a reference to the first Gulf War, a ‘war' so one-sided it was famously suggested that an army of 70-men (around the number of US casualties in that war) could have won it. Certainly Timothy's style has a few octaves to it, yet thus far in his career he has yet to storm any bastion of note, instead winning phoney wars stacked in his favour.
In fairness to Bradley things were motoring along nicely for him and he was put forward for a box-off against Jose Luis Castillo. Unfortunately we found out, once again, that Castillo, a warrior in the ring, is a disgrace on the scales. Consequently Bradley now faces the unenviable task of boxing away from home against a powerful and unorthodox southpaw, without having any big time experience to rely on.
On the other hand this could be a plus for Bradley, no one expects anything from him and he can live in the hope that this attitude is shared by Witter; however given the professional attitude of Witter this is very unlikely.
Since turning professional in 2004 Bradley has only recently stepped into 10-round bouts. Despite a solid win over Miguel Vazquez in his last bout Bradley is by no means a fighter ready for a title shot.
In out-scoring Vazquez and Donald Camarena in recent Shobox shown bouts Bradley has shown that he has a high work rate over 10-rounds, whether this equates to a decent motor over 12-rounds is another matter.
Stylistically Bradley tends to lunge in with his shots, carrying his chin high as he does so; thus far he has not had to run the risk of these flaws being exposed. In Witter he faces a guy whose meat and drink is supplied by guys lunging in with high chins and no guard.
Bradley's aggression has been a great friend to him in recent fights but this forward motion, coupled with a lack of defence, means that as long as Witter is sharp with his punches Bradley will find out very early just how solid his chin is at this level.
There is little between the two in terms of height and reach, an inch or so each way, yet Witter, with his patient cobra style, does utilise his height and reach much better than Bradley.
Every time he throws a one-two Bradley tends to lunge in behind the right hand, with no left hook behind it to correct his stance, consequently Bradley often lands the right hand only to fall into a clinch, or inside buffering.
It must be said, however, that Bradley can throw the one-two combination well to the body, plus he is a good body puncher in general, if he boxes clever this body attack may allow him to wrong-foot Junior.
In his win over Donald Camarena (10 x 3) we saw the best and worst of Bradley. He worked the body well throughout the fight, with his only real worry coming in round six as his southpaw opponent caught him with a straight left hand, although Bradley was a little off-balance at the time the blow caused a knockdown, one not flagged by referee David Mendoza.
Despite this blip Bradley hammered Camarena for the remainder of the fight, although there were warning signs, leading mostly with a sloppy left hook Bradley was open for much of the contest, this would be suicidal in a fight with Witter. With this said Bradley can box on the back foot, and he can do it well, although one feels that his natural motion is a forward one.
Overall, though, it is unlikely that Bradley has developed the level of boxing subtlety needed to defeat Witter. On a skill-to-skill basis Witter holds the aces in this fight; consequently it is to the intangibles that we must turn in order to see how the fight may pan out.
One thing to be taken into account is the fact that Witter has not fought since September, a concussive counter puncher needs to have his sharpness in order to look good, this is even more so the case with Witter, who can look very disjointed when his sharpness is not there. If this is the situation on Saturday we could be in for a poor nights boxing, with Bradley moving in, Witter failing to counter, and the two getting into a tangle. If Witter is sharp – and is not suffering from making the weight – then he should be able to hit Bradley hard, and hit him often, this is where the other intangible comes into play.
Bradley's chin has one or two question marks over it. Jaime Rangel rocked him at the lower level, from the southpaw stance also, so we can surmise that Witter will be able to rock him when he lands.
Also, Bradley does come in with his head when boxing southpaws, Witter will have to be careful of Bradley's dome.
Whatever Bradley brings to the table the task is clear for Witter. Witter is increasingly becoming the President of the ‘who needs him club' and could be forced to watch on the sidelines as Hatton, and Hatton's proposed foes at the weight, rake in the money, leaving Witter with the bitter taste of hunger in his mouth.
It is imperative that Witter looks sensational in Nottingham. His opponent is made for this purpose therefore the fight should result in a big win for Witter.
A loss for Witter would see him buried by an Unknown Soldier.
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Originally Posted by hattonthehammer
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