BoxRec

Junior seems to have a new lease of life and will head to Stuttgart to take on unbeaten Albanian Timo Schwarzkopf on November 15th.

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He looks in great condition, but under the good there's no denying he's a lot older and slower.

polecateddy wrote:He looks in great condition, but under the good there's no denying he's a lot older and slower.

and awful to watch

I'm glad he never fought Hatton. He may have just spoiled his way to a horrid, disgusting decision

He did okay against Tim Bradley although he clearly lost. At his best he was very much world class.

Witter was horrible to watch five years ago. I dread to think what he'll be like now. Besides, I thought he was long retired.

There was a short period where he was bombing out Euro-level guys where he actually looked dynamic and powerful (Viv Harris got stopped too, Viv insisted Junior had loaded gloves or something), but then he put in turgid performances against the likes of Kotelnik and Bradley. I think it was just a classic case of styles, he seemed incapable of landing much on more skilled defensive fighters but could easily bomb out the more face-first Euro fighters.

Witter vs Hatton would have been interesting but horrible to watch in all likelihood.

Witter fading in the mid to late rounds just indicates to me that Hatton would have either stopped him early, or got a wide UD.

I saw him fight a Latvian or Lithuanian on a Hennessy undercard a while back (might have been Fury-Firtha or Rogan) and he was very poor. Having said that he could have been under-motivated by those type of six-rounders but his timing was right off and there was so much holding and spoiling. He's most certainly past his best.

In his time and at his peak witter was superb to watch, from a purists point of view he got his digs in and was very difficult for anyone to tag him. When he stopped lauri in 2002 I watched open mouthed. He was superb and hatton did not want an ounce of him. Watch witter v lauri on you tube.

rhino222 wrote:In his time and at his peak witter was superb to watch, from a purists point of view he got his digs in and was very difficult for anyone to tag him. When he stopped lauri in 2002 I watched open mouthed. He was superb and hatton did not want an ounce of him. Watch witter v lauri on you tube.

For some reason I find it amusing that I remember one of the judges in his fight against Judah was called George Colon.

rhino222 wrote:In his time and at his peak witter was superb to watch, from a purists point of view he got his digs in and was very difficult for anyone to tag him. When he stopped lauri in 2002 I watched open mouthed. He was superb and hatton did not want an ounce of him. Watch witter v lauri on you tube.

Agree with all this. Loved witter in his prime, i remember how impressive he was vs vivian harris i think he ruined harris and he was never the same after that. Made the trip to see him vs bradley, i was probably one of the few travelling fans he had (loved that trip had a 2 hour boxing convo with a stranger and never said our names) unfortunatly he lost. And i think he would have taken any hatton version a any point. Not just prime vs prime

witter has never been tha good really,an very boring to watch

At his best Witter would give any fighter problems. However his style has always relied on timing and reflexes, the two things that desert a fighter first...he'll probably win a prizefighter and have one last crack at a British title but the worry is that his timing and reflexes will be poor and he'll be beaten by someone who couldn't have laced his boots ten years ago.

Witter was world class in his prime but I don't believe he would have beat hatton. Hatton was a pure fighting machine the only way to beat him was to kock him out which in his hay day only the 2 top fighters of his generation did it. Anyone else think hatton would have quit on his stool??? Massive stain on his career against Alexander he just wasn't make from the same stuff as ricky.

rio wrote:Witter was world class in his prime but I don't believe he would have beat hatton. Hatton was a pure fighting machine the only way to beat him was to kock him out which in his hay day only the 2 top fighters of his generation did it. Anyone else think hatton would have quit on his stool??? Massive stain on his career against Alexander he just wasn't make from the same stuff as ricky.

It was the clash of styles that made it tho. Witter had huge power in his prime and Hatton wasn't exactly elusive. Anyone who thinks it's cut and dry at all because of the different levels of success of their careers is sorely mistaken. Any time between 2002 and 2008 Witter would have given Hatton a tough night.

I always remember when I think Witter got the mandatory spot with the WBC and Gatti was champ, and he ended up defending against Floyd in a voluntary defence. I will always believe that had Witter got that fight first he would have beaten Gatti very easily.

jameswilson wrote:

rio wrote:Witter was world class in his prime but I don't believe he would have beat hatton. Hatton was a pure fighting machine the only way to beat him was to kock him out which in his hay day only the 2 top fighters of his generation did it. Anyone else think hatton would have quit on his stool??? Massive stain on his career against Alexander he just wasn't make from the same stuff as ricky.

It was the clash of styles that made it tho. Witter had huge power in his prime and Hatton wasn't exactly elusive. Anyone who thinks it's cut and dry at all because of the different levels of success of their careers is sorely mistaken. Any time between 2002 and 2008 Witter would have given Hatton a tough night.

I always remember when I think Witter got the mandatory spot with the WBC and Gatti was champ, and he ended up defending against Floyd in a voluntary defence. I will always believe that had Witter got that fight first he would have beaten Gatti very easily.

Agree......defo would not have been an easy night for ricky. However I still think he beats him. Probs would not have been the. Most exciting fight which is one of the reasons it was not made

Hate how people slag Witter as if he wasn't any good because he wasn't the best to watch (some purists would disagree).

Witter in his time was a quality fighter.

Not being fan friendly to watch doesn't make you a bad fighter.

It was the same when people used to say Rob Norton deserved to lose his title by a bad decision/robbery because he was bad to watch.

rio wrote:

jameswilson wrote:

rio wrote:Witter was world class in his prime but I don't believe he would have beat hatton. Hatton was a pure fighting machine the only way to beat him was to kock him out which in his hay day only the 2 top fighters of his generation did it. Anyone else think hatton would have quit on his stool??? Massive stain on his career against Alexander he just wasn't make from the same stuff as ricky.

It was the clash of styles that made it tho. Witter had huge power in his prime and Hatton wasn't exactly elusive. Anyone who thinks it's cut and dry at all because of the different levels of success of their careers is sorely mistaken. Any time between 2002 and 2008 Witter would have given Hatton a tough night.

I always remember when I think Witter got the mandatory spot with the WBC and Gatti was champ, and he ended up defending against Floyd in a voluntary defence. I will always believe that had Witter got that fight first he would have beaten Gatti very easily.

Agree......defo would not have been an easy night for ricky. However I still think he beats him. Probs would not have been the. Most exciting fight which is one of the reasons it was not made

I think Ricky would beat witter easily, I remember kotelnik boxing witter, an I thought he won an he couldn't miss with left hook.

saturday_kid wrote:Hate how people slag Witter as if he wasn't any good because he wasn't the best to watch (some purists would disagree).

Witter in his time was a quality fighter.

Not being fan friendly to watch doesn't make you a bad fighter.

It was the same when people used to say Rob Norton deserved to lose his title by a bad decision/robbery because he was bad to watch.

Would purists really like Witter?

Clint Magnum wrote:he'll probably win a prizefighter

he tried that one already i think you'll find.

Witter is, was and always will be an annoying fighter. You see the ability but just not the mindset of a world class fighter. On his day he had a great punch but we saw that rather too fleetingly, especially when he came up against decent people and needed to really raise his level and take some risks. I just got the impression he wanted to win every fight in second gear and just had no real further gears to go to when the going got tough.

I think people saw that and he lost respect for it, that he'd go into his shell and just try and coast through certain fights, even coast to a loss if he wasn't quite up to the task, rather than lay it all on the line and see what happened.

tilt wrote:witter has never been tha good really,an very boring to watch

He may have been awful to watch but he had talent and his style won him British, European, World titles and got him some decent pay days along the way. Saying he was never that good is very unfair, he wouldn't have won titles if he wasn't.

rhino222 wrote:In his time and at his peak witter was superb to watch, from a purists point of view he got his digs in and was very difficult for anyone to tag him. When he stopped lauri in 2002 I watched open mouthed. He was superb and hatton did not want an ounce of him. Watch witter v lauri on you tube.

Lauri had given Hatton a few problems and Witter smashed him to bits. rhino222 wasn't the only one sat open-mouthed. Hatton and Billy Graham were sat ringside and looked horrified.

The Hatton-Witter debate will go on for ever. One fighter offered to fight for free and his manager constantly tried to make the fight- the other didn't want to know. End of.

No different to Herol v Sibson in the 80's, too much risk against too little reward. I think some1 previous made a great point about junior going through the gears or not being able too.It would have been extremely dangerous for Hatton in the first half of the fight especially if Junior got him wobbling, terrific finisher in his prime Witter. Ricky would have to be at his most disciplined early on perhaps selecting quality(body work)over quantity and trying to give nothing away. If Ricky didnt give too many round away early he would catch up with Junior down the stretch to grind out a points win.As an aside and i say this as Sibbo's biggest fan, Herol would have absolutley murdered Tony in their respective primes