BoxRec

If Witter is as good as he and Oscar think, they should get him a Harris fight so he can spark Vicious Viv on national American TV.
There should be no probs getting a Hatton clash after that....

I asked Ricky on behalf of britishboxing.net, at his press conf before the Olivera fight - why he didn't take on Witter. He replied along the lines of Jr bringing nothing to the table etc

But old FW went off on a 5 minute rant. He did make one telling point though: why did Witter pull out of the Pinto fight? He implied that Jr didn't fancy his chances in that one, and I think alot of boxing people thought the same.

KO Atrist wrote: Surely, to fight the world number 1, you have to beat a world class fighter, or from a commercial point of view, be a great ticket seller so that the world no 1 can be paid enough to fight you.

You obviously dont understand the situation. 22,000 ticket sales didnt pay Kosta Tszyu $5m +, it was American TV. Thus they called the shots and hence the fight was at 03:00 GMT, even though it was held in England. Effectively Showtime now control Hatton.

liamlion wrote:

KO Atrist wrote: Surely, to fight the world number 1, you have to beat a world class fighter, or from a commercial point of view, be a great ticket seller so that the world no 1 can be paid enough to fight you.

You obviously dont understand the situation. 22,000 ticket sales didnt pay Kosta Tszyu $5m +, it was American TV. Thus they called the shots and hence the fight was at 03:00 GMT, even though it was held in England. Effectively Showtime now control Hatton.

Having promoted shows myself, I understand the situation perfectly, in tickets i mean fight tickets and PPV sales.

Witter sells neither.

search wrote:

KO Atrist wrote:

liamlion wrote: You obviously dont understand the situation. 22,000 ticket sales didnt pay Kosta Tszyu $5m +, it was American TV. Thus they called the shots and hence the fight was at 03:00 GMT, even though it was held in England. Effectively Showtime now control Hatton.

Having promoted shows myself, I understand the situation perfectly, in tickets i mean fight tickets and PPV sales.

Witter sells neither.

So Witter doesn't deserve a shot because he doesn't sell that many tickets?

Just because he doesn't sell that many tickets doesn't mean he DOESNT DESERVE a fight with Hatton.

My point is, Witter is deserving of a shot based on what he has achieved so far. He is just as deserving of a shot as Hatton was, based on their boxing careers.

Look at all the top champions. They don't all fight the best ticket sellers.

OK

I will try to be sensible here.

Why dont you tell me what Witter has done to deserve a crack at the title

So I wonder why Mayweather is fighting Gatti?

Kilburn wrote:

You'll all be in for it when J gets back, complete with chip on shoulder.

not at all mate i find it hilarious that even though Rivcky has boxed out of his skin that these bitter silly wankers come on here and decry his acheivement simply cos they are twisted witter fans.

fornicate em.

i dont care.

i know one thing though.

if someone had been as rude to my face as some people on here have been over the past few days I wouldnt be very happy.

lets leave it at that.

nice weekend all take care of yrselves and look forward to speaking next week.

take care fight fans even if i dont agree with all of you, i can see we have a common interest and that should supercede all

good luck to junior a potential world champ
and god bless ricky already a world champ

you did Britain proud my son no matter what anyone says.

search wrote: Why did De La Hoya fight Campas?

That particular one is a no brainer mate. Campas has always been popular, and the Latin American community purchase more PPV's than anyone else.

Let’s just take a step back a minute and think. What's the best thing that can happen for Hatton right now and for boxing for that matter?

The WBC and WBA Light Welterweight titles are both on the line this coming weekend and Miguel Coutto has just defended his WBO title. Surely that would suggest that there have been little or no negotiations for any of these boxers to fight anytime soon.

A tournament between the winners of each of these fights shouldn't be too difficult to arrange?

How about:

Hatton v Harris/Moussa

V

Gatti/Mayweather v Coutto

And then the winners fight each other to find out the undisputed champ. It's happening more frequently now. Bernard Hopkins and Zab Judah look to be showing the way (Zab looks set to come to agreement to face Margaritto).

As for Junior Witter well hasn’t he recently fought in a WBC Eliminator? If so his chance to fight Hatton may not be too far away as long as he can pick up the WBC belt at some stage this year.

search wrote:

jamesmcdonnell wrote:So I wonder why Mayweather is fighting Gatti?

Why did Mosley fight Wright?
Why did Roy Jones fight Tarver?
Why did Lewis fight Mavrovich?
Why did Hopkins fight Joppy/Allen?
Why did De La Hoya fight Campas?

What a laughable list, you're showing your ignorance.

Mosley fought Wright because wright was widely regarded as the main man, and Mosley wanted recognition. Same way Hatton wanted Tszyu.
Jones fought Tarver to shut him up and prove a point, bad move on his part, he had no business dropping back down to LH.
Mavrovic? You're saying Hatton didn't deserve a shot, and what Mavrovic was entitled to one. Lewis fought Mavrovic because he wanted an easy night's work, don't see how that compares to Hatton giving Witter a shot....
Hopkins fought Joppy and Allen because he was determined to keep all the belts and fight all of his mandatories, plus Hopkins ain't a PPV seller, despite his impressive record.

DLH v Campas has been covered elsewhere in this thread.

Mosley wasn't the man regarded as the top boy going into the fight with Winky, it wasn't a case of a guy taking a risk and defending his right to be called the top boy, Wright was the geezer, not Mosley.

There's a thing in boxing called the risk reward ratio, every fighter and promoter is aware of it.

Sure Lewis fought Mavrovic, but that was a virtually no risk fight, it was one of those keep busy fights which champs take for a smaller but risk free payday.

Witter is quite possibly world class, he's looked good lately, but unlike Cotto, Harris, Mayweather, Corrales and Gatti, he doesn't have Marquee value, and he isn't some patsy Hatton could just walk through.

Hatton is likely to be more concerned with clearing out the division than risking his title against Witter just because people in the UK think that it's a good domestic dust up.

Boxing is a business as much as it's a sport, fighters take big risks every time they fight, and unlike most other sports a single defeat can seriously harm your career.

Deserve doesn't often come into it. In boxing there's plenty of guys who deserved a shot who never even got a single one.

why do you think Boxing is run by promoters, is all about arses on seats, and that's why the biggest ticket sellers in boxing also generally happened to be the most popular and enduring champions.

I just think you're a bit naive about the economic realities of the sport, and to be honest, Witter hasn't done anything yet which FORCES Hatton to fight him. If Witter wins a belt and then starts whacking out some top flight fighters, I believe the fight will happen.

jamesmcdonnell wrote: why do you think Boxing is run by promoters, is all about arses on seats, and that's why the biggest ticket sellers in boxing also generally happened to be the most popular and enduring champions.

I just think you're a bit naive about the economic realities of the sport, and to be honest, Witter hasn't done anything yet which FORCES Hatton to fight him. If Witter wins a belt and then starts whacking out some top flight fighters, I believe the fight will happen.

You seriously believe that Hatton v Witter wouldnt sell????? I know that this is the favoured excuse at the moment, but it just doesnt add up! Can you not remember people from Hatton's camp confident of a sell-out at Maine Road for the proposed Witter fight some years back?

Jesus, Hatton sold out the MEN against Jason Rowlands, Dennis Holbaek Pedersen, Joe Hutchinson, Aldo Nazareno Rios, John Bailey, Mikhail Krivolapov etc. None of these fellows were reknown ticket sellers yet they fought Hatton and the place was sold out. Witter only has to fight Hatton in Manchester and all possible tickets would be sold.

It isnt a viable arguement that Hatton wont fight Witter simply because Witter doesnt sell tickets. And fair play if youre talking about PPV, but prior to the Kosta Tyszu fight, Hatton's ability to sell PPV both here and in America has effectively been zero.

Hatton's fans would turn up to watch him wrestle with a deck chair, whether Witter was in there with him or not is not really the issue.

So have we establised that it isnt really a viable excuse for Hatton to avoid Witter on the basis that Witter doesnt sell tickets?

I am saying that if I was promoting Ricky Hatton, i'd rather staple one of my nuts to the table than make that fight with Witter having no belt, no international profile, and no real addition to the money in the pot.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:Hatton's fans would turn up to watch him wrestle with a deck chair, whether Witter was in there with him or not is not really the issue.

Wrestle seems to be the "In" word for Hatton right now. I hope he learns how to box again otherwise we may see him in the WWF!

jamesmcdonnell wrote:I am saying that if I was promoting Ricky Hatton, i'd rather staple one of my nuts to the table than make that fight with Witter having no belt, no international profile, and no real addition to the money in the pot.

Waht Witter fans dont seem to realise is that without a belt, and wins over world class opposition Witter would get peanuts for fighting Hatton.

If he could win the WBC title and have a couple of defences, the Hatton fight would be massive and witter might get a $1m plus purse.

It pays Witter to win a title then fight Hatton

search wrote:
BUT I DO NOT ACCEPT PEOPLE SAYING HE DOESN'T "DESERVE" TO FIGHT HATTON BASED ON HIS BOXING CAREER AND WHAT HE HAS ACHIEVED.

Now you see....the thing with Witter is that the 2 fights he`s had worth talking about were a loss, and a win against a guy who quite frankly is nothing more than a journeyman.....Since the Judah fight, Witters had more stiffs than Jenna Jameson...along the line beating up on Chaff for the Commonwealth...and European belts...who did he beat for the belts...CHAFF...thats who.....

Witter's only had one loss, to Judah mate don't know where the other loss comes from. Yes it was a stinky fight, and in hindsight, I bet Junior wishes he never took the fight, he went in to survive and it cost him a big chunk of his career. My guess is he was a little pressured into taking the opportunity.

However, I agree that the standard of opponents for European honours is generally fairly poor, it's not like any of them were world class fighters. Kristoff Bienieas ans Salvatore Battaglia are hardly world beaters.

There's a lot of very weak opponent's on junior's resume, but some of that must be due to the fact that few decent fighters with a bright future want to face him.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:Witter's only had one loss, to Judah mate don't know where the other loss comes from. Yes it was a stinky fight, and in hindsight, I bet Junior wishes he never took the fight, he went in to survive and it cost him a big chunk of his career. My guess is he was a little pressured into taking the opportunity.

However, I agree that the standard of opponents for European honours is generally fairly poor, it's not like any of them were world class fighters. Kristoff Bienieas ans Salvatore Battaglia are hardly world beaters.

There's a lot of very weak opponent's on junior's resume, but some of that must be due to the fact that few decent fighters with a bright future want to face him.

I should say....the two fights worth talking about were a loss, and win versus a journeyman(in my humble opinion).......Thanks mr mac for pointing that slip out for me

Yeah...Witter could be the goods...and theres no denying his elusiveness..but untill he proves to myself that he`s top echelon there still will be question marks over his ability to take it to the trenches when the shit gets thick...and his genuine punching power against the best in the division....and Ndou defo aint that.