BoxRec

from Fightnews.com

Witter out of Pinto fight?
By Keith Holland and Alessandro Ferrarini
The rumour mill in boxing is always flying around, especially on the week of a big card. One such rumour has reached Fightnews.com and it is that Junior Witter will miss his scheduled WBO interim light-welter battle against Brazilian Kelson Pinto, which was due to take place on Saturday in Manchester, England. Witter has damaged a hand and it would be foolish to go into such a fight anything less than 100%. It is a blow for Witter, but the old cliché 'every cloud has a silver lining' is always relevant and in this case Witter's official nomination for the European crown recently vacated by Oktay Urkal will surely soften the blow. The British contender recently accepted his position as the mandatory co-challenger and will fight Italian domestic champ Salvatore Battaglia early next year: the European Boxing Union already set a deadline for negotiations and purse bids will be held in Rome, Italy, on January 7 at 11pm GMT. No comment on the situation was available from Sports Network at this time but, even with the loss of Witter vs. Pinto, it is still a fine card on Saturday night which is headed by Ricky Hatton defending his WBU light-welterweight crown against Ghana's Ben Tackie. Appearances by American supermiddle Jeff Lacy and British welter king David Barnes mean that, should the rumours be correct, there is still plenty for the boxing fan.
Monday, December 8 2003

is either true or not

mrbassie wrote:from Fightnews.com

Witter out of Pinto fight?
By Keith Holland and Alessandro Ferrarini
The rumour mill in boxing is always flying around, especially on the week of a big card. One such rumour has reached Fightnews.com and it is that Junior Witter will miss his scheduled WBO interim light-welter battle against Brazilian Kelson Pinto, which was due to take place on Saturday in Manchester, England. Witter has damaged a hand and it would be foolish to go into such a fight anything less than 100%. It is a blow for Witter, but the old cliché 'every cloud has a silver lining' is always relevant and in this case Witter's official nomination for the European crown recently vacated by Oktay Urkal will surely soften the blow. The British contender recently accepted his position as the mandatory co-challenger and will fight Italian domestic champ Salvatore Battaglia early next year: the European Boxing Union already set a deadline for negotiations and purse bids will be held in Rome, Italy, on January 7 at 11pm GMT. No comment on the situation was available from Sports Network at this time but, even with the loss of Witter vs. Pinto, it is still a fine card on Saturday night which is headed by Ricky Hatton defending his WBU light-welterweight crown against Ghana's Ben Tackie. Appearances by American supermiddle Jeff Lacy and British welter king David Barnes mean that, should the rumours be correct, there is still plenty for the boxing fan.
Monday, December 8 2003

is either true or not

Spot on. Credit must go to Keith Holland at Fightnews for having the balls to publish that.

Is it true though Soot? I know you have ties with Witter, so you probably wouldn't say if it wasn't....I'm talking about the injury.

I'm sure you can guess what the more cynical amongst us might be thinking?

Twinkle Toes wrote:Is it true though Soot? I know you have ties with Witter, so you probably wouldn't say if it wasn't....I'm talking about the injury.

I'm sure you can guess what the more cynical amongst us might be thinking?

Hi Twinkle

Yeah, it doesn't sound great does it? I've not managed to get hold of Witter but I'm told his hand injury is 100% legit. Obviously I'm not going to be told anything else I guess. What should be pointed out though is that Witter damaged ligaments in his hand during the Jurgen Haeck fight. It's a painful injury and it kept him out for a few months. This latest injury could be a recoccurance of that. His hand was hurting him too much in sparring for him to risk it, presumably.

Junior's going to take a lot of stick for this though either way. It's very disappointing news.

I want to believe Witter, I really do. But I've always had doubts that this fight would happen. Just seemed like a huge risk for not much of a reward.

Pinto would have beaten him I think. I was going to have a few quid on Pinto at attractive odds. Shame....

Everyone is entitled to be sceptical about this one.
All I can say, is that I regularly visit the Gym, and Junior has progressively had problems with this hand injury, and that culminated in a doctor taking a look, and the injury is significant for this fight not to proceed.
I understand an official announcement will be made today / tomorrow.
I'm personally gutted, because I really wanted to find out the truth about Junior, with this step up in class.
Unfortunately I also believe that this is the final nail in the coffin for the fight we all crave, Witter v Hatton.
It was remote before this development, but this is the end of it in my view.

Witter was never going to fight him in the first place.

Pinto would have KO'd him, no question.