First of all it's McDonnell.
Maybe Witter will continue to improve, maybe he won't who knows, I would have hoped he would be at or very near his peak physically by now anyhow.
Witter's performance was excellent in parts, and as you say, the hand injury probably played a factor in it. However, if his left hand was so badly affected, how did he manage to land that monstrous left hook in round 10? Surely that would have been absolutely insane of him with an already badly damaged left hand?
As for N'dou, his IBF #4 rating is a little inflated to say the least, when was the last time he actually beat anyone?
However, the converse of this is that Mike Stewart certainly is no better, and is probably worse in fact. Neither man is really of a quality to be any sort of eliminator, but that's the way the game works.
I always said that Witter would beat N'dou, and I thought he had a good chance of stopping him, so quite how my judgement is clouded, I really don't know.
If I am being hypercritical of Witter, well, sadly, that comes with the territory. If a fighter is moving up into the rarified atmosphere of the division's elite, then performances have to be looked at in the light of possible world title challenges.
I have to imagine Witter in those middle rounds had he been facing Cotto, Gatti, Mayweather, and wonder what the probably outcome might have been.
It's also clear that Witter will not be able to bang away with such impugnity against the more technically able fighters who operate at that level, he will get hit hard and often if he does so. That is not to say Witter is incapable of doing so, but he will
I do precisely the same thing with Ricky Hatton's performances too, there's no bias involved here.
My point about Witter is that as he relies on his reflexes as opposed to normal defensive technique (blocking and parrying) he is likely to start losing his reflexes gradually over the next few year. You only have to look at Roy Jones to see what effect that has on a reflex based fighter.
Personally, I would love to see Hatton and Witter fight, but it's unlikely to happen until Hatton has lost in a title bid, and even then only if Witter goes on to win a title.
It's the best performance by Witter to date, and arguably it makes him the best LW in the country, he definetly has the power to hurt anyone in the division, and things are looking good.