Last Saturday night we saw a seemingly past prime Junior Witter defeated by Timothy Bradley.
Bradley although very fit and strong, was a fighther that was not yet at world level and Witter seems to have dropped from the public's ratings now.

I feel that Witter knew he was past his best. He realised he was coming to the end and he needed his meal ticket. Hatton is the meal ticket in the 140lb division and Witter manipulated the media in an attempt to get a shot.
Did he deserve it? Many will say yes, but apart from defeating an elderly Vivian Harris, Witter had done very little.
Hatton, despite widespread criticism stood firm denying Witter his payday, to our collective puzzlement.
Was Hatton afraid, did he see some threat? or did he genuinely believe that Witter did not deserve to make money of his name?

Brendan Ingle told me recently, that for his lads boxing was about making money. He says he takes care of his lads and helps them to make money to feed their families and live a little more comfortably. Witter was most probably trying to make money off Ricky's marketability.

Hatton fans were questioning why Ricky refused the fight, the media fell hook, line and sinker, chastising Hatton's "excuse."

Ricky got it right. Witter was only after money and Rick made the right call.

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An interesting read HITMAN , its hard to say if you are right im sure only Ricky knows , but some fair points.

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Lord knows I'm a Ricky fan, but from speaking with (drunken) Ricky and Brendan Ingle within the last couple of months, this is what I come up with.

See from my point of veiw Hatton was hoping someone would floor witter before Ricky would have to deal with him.

In other words Ricky didn't want a nights hard work for really speaking zero reward,apart from the title but theres 4 others there so he's not exactly got limited options.

At the end of the day like you said he made a good call.

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Well i personally think Hatton was waiting for one of two things.

1) He was letting Witter manipulate the media into thinking he is being avoided. This way Witter's popularity increases ten fold and a big money unification is there for both of them to earn mega money from......in 2009, providing Witter is still the champ and Hatton has beaten Paulie (the other threat at 140).

2) He wasn't that arsed about fighting him and he expected the Witter hype to die down once he shows his natural form et al Lynes, Kotelnik etc...which he did on Saturday night.

I don't think he's arsed either way. Aswell as Witter being in it for the money, i think Hatton is too and he'd sooner just fight Mayweather again purely for the money he would stand to make. Hatton didn't need Witter to make money. Hatton is already a massive draw. Hatton didn't need Witter anymore than he needed Torres, Kotelnik etc...

+7

I mentioned him to Ricky before, he said something along the lines
"I'd stop him, he knows that and he still wants money."

Brendan Ingle said to me;
"Boxing is about making money, if you're going to get hit in the head, you might aswell be paid for it."
and
"Every fighter has a limit and the money they can make, but if they can bluff past that, they've made a profit and it hasn't hurt their repuatation." (Rees.)

Name a fighter that isn't in it for the money?

Ricky's BEST excuse for dodging Witter has always been to prevent him from a huge payday. He GENUINELY dislikes him. So stopping Witter from cashing in was the worst thing he could possibly do to him.

"Fighters want to fight for titles, but not as much as we want to fight for MONEY." Roy Jones jr

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+68

I personally think Hatton made a mistake here I have wanted to see the Witter fight for years and now looks sure it will never happen,

had Hatton fought Witter instead of Juan lacuzo he would have had the opportunity to say he is going straight in with the best at LWW and had the Witter that turned up on Saturday turned up Hatton would have blown him away and looked good doing it

I don't think there are that many great fights out there for Hatton at the moment (Malignaggi is made for Hatton)

I would have loved to watch hatton destroy Witter at COMS and financial and for this legacy it would have made sense to go straight in for a title fight particular if he was so confident

+52

The only flaw in your reasoning is that Witter's been calling out Hatton for 8 years, far before his skills had started to diminish.

Hatton was rightly chastised for his dumbass 'excuse', before saturday night Witter was widely considered no.2 in the division behind Hatton, he was a local rival and the fans wanted to see the fight.
If Hatton really believed that Witter was there for the taking, and that Witter was only calling him out for the money, wouldn't it have made much more sense for Hatton to fight Witter rather than Lazcano? since he'd be fighting a much more highly regarded opponent, he'd get a presitgious belt, and he'd have shut Witter up for ever, effectively killing THREE birds with one stone.

Marco Antonio Barrera
Calvin Brock
Juan Diaz
Witter has a style to make Hatton look horrible in victory. Witter's style would have Hatton (the champ) chase and work all night long.
Why would he bother when he can KO Lazcano (I PRESUME) save himself time and keep repuatation.

Witter was calling out Ricky for a British Title shot originally. Hatton was moving on to the world scene at that stage.
And why is it that Ricky was always at the place Junior wanted to be before Junior could get there?

Just because a fighter has an education, indicating they don't "need" to fight to earn, it doesn't mean their boxing career is not determined by money.

Do you believe they fight for fun? If so, they must be a dream to promoters all over the world

MAB, reportedly at the top of his law class.
Could have travelled the world as a lawyer and made money easier.

Calvin Brock, a banker who made huge money before entering boxing. Chose to box.

Juan Diaz, an honour student, studying Law. Could/Can make a lot of money eaier than boxing.

Evander Holyfield.

Ohhh, Donny , i think that you maybe miss , The Principe " Hazim Hammed " , he was another Millionaire that chossed to Boxing too , because he liked it.............
Obviously , i never liked him like a Boxer , THANKS to Marcos Antonio Barrera took him out of Boxing...........

i never liked witter and i knew he was overated. Hatton would beat Witter by late stoppage or UD.

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Just because a fighter has an education, indicating they don't "need" to fight to earn, it doesn't mean their boxing career is not determined by money.

Do you believe they fight for fun? If so, they must be a dream to promoters all over the world