Witter to Hatton: Give Britain what it wants

Many reasons why Ricky Hatton won’t fight WBC light welterweight champion Junior Witter have been offered, but his long-term rival is exposing them one by one. Two potential major obstacles, however, still remain: Ricky Hatton and time.

Hatton’s next opponent remains unclear. Having both appeared on the same Vegas show last month, the plan appeared to be for the IBF champion to fight Mexican Jose Luis Castillo in June.

Both, however, failed to impress. This was followed by an announcement last week from the IBF stating that Hatton had to next face the winner of their final eliminator between Lovemore N’Dou and Nafoeul Ben Rabah on Sunday.

Whilst Hatton’s promoter Dennis Hobson reportedly informed the IBF that his charge would meet this request – suggesting the defence could happen in the UK – it appears that former Witter victim N’Dou may not be next in line despite forcing Rabah to quit on his stool at the start of the 12th.

Hobson has since stated that Castillo may still come first if he can agree a step aside deal with the new mandatory contender. Amongst all the confusion Witter, who became the first ever-British fighter to hold a WBC title at 140lb last year, believes Hatton should turn in his direction.

“I think Hatton needs to grow some balls, forget all the politics and just give everyone the fight they want,” began Witter. “Him and his team say I bring nothing to the table. They say US TV doesn’t want to show me. We all know that’s bullshit.

“That was shown again when Hobson said Hatton would fight the winner of N’Dou-Rabah. I heard Hobson said that the fight could happen at the City of Manchester stadium, although the quotes seem to have been removed from the website they were on.

“How does that add up? How can I be off Hatton’s radar and not acceptable for TV when he is prepared to defend a world title against a fighter I dominated two years ago in just an eliminator?

“If they go for Castillo first, what’s the point? He is a blown up lightweight who hasn’t properly established himself at 10 stone. He only got by Herman Ngoudjo on a split. There won’t even be a major title on the line – Castillo isn’t even ranked by the IBF. There can be no way the IBF would grant another exception as they did for Hatton-Urango and allow N’Dou to reach a step aside deal.

“It looks like nothing is set in stone for Hatton so why doesn’t he cut to the chase and give something back to the public who helped put him where he is? This is the biggest fight out there for Britain and the biggest fight for him. He can’t argue with the facts:

>>>> I am a British fighter holding the WBC belt. The most prestigious belt. A belt he has never won.

>>>> We could achieve one of the biggest gates in British Boxing history if we went somewhere like the near 50,000 capacity City of Manchester Stadium.

>>>> The Sky Pay Per View figures could potentially break all records.

>>>> HBO could still be accommodated on either a live or delayed basis.

>>>> Hatton will make far more money fighting me than Castillo or N’Dou.

>>>> We have the longest rivalry in boxing today.

>>>> His trainer says he would like to give me “a beating’ because he “hates’ me, but Hatton is worried about giving me a pay-day. Well here is the solution: winner takes all. He can give me a good beating for nothing.

“Nothing else makes sense for Hatton apart from this fight, unless he is scared. Unless he knows what I do, that I will knock him out. If he decides he wants it, the only other issue is timing.

“There is a window of opportunity here, but if we are not careful we are going to miss it and this fight will never happen.”

“If we are going to meet, it has to be this summer. This fight has to take place in a football stadium. It makes sense to go to his backyard and I have never had a problem with doing that.

“That obviously can’t happen in the winter and if anyone thinks this fight can wait until 2008 they are badly mistaken. Someone will have caught up with Hatton by then. If he wants the biggest fight of his career, he has to step up now.

“I suspect he won’t. That’s fine. I can concentrate on securing my own legacy without having the fact that I avoided potentially the biggest fight in British Boxing history on my conscience.

“But if he doesn’t, I think he has to go down as a bottler. I know he’s just had his annual “s**t shirt’ competition, but perhaps it should have been “s**t pants’ instead, as he would have won that hands down this year. That’s all he seems to do when my name is mentioned.”