BoxRec

Witter made WBC #1



Bradford’s Junior Witter moved a step closer to an authentic world title challenge last week when the WBC installed him as the number one contender to their current champion and pound for pound king ‘Pretty Boy’ Floyd Mayweather.

The decision to elevate the British, Commonwealth and European title-holder follows the exclusion of Gianluca Branco – who is set to face WBO king Miguel Cotto - from the governing body’s latest light welterweight rankings.

“This is obviously great news for Junior, “ said his promoter Mick Hennessy. “It is indicative of the progress he has made since he began working with us.”

Hennessy added: “Our priority now is to get him installed as the WBC mandatory challenger as soon as is possible. Given past events with Branco, I strongly believe Junior deserves this position.

“He has earned the right to face Mayweather, a marquee champion.

“A Mayweather-Witter showdown would be a great fight for the 140lbs division.

“Junior would be a completely different proposition to Mayweather’s last victim Arturo Gatti.

“Junior wouldn’t be a stationary target; he’s got fantastic movement and punches harder than Gatti.”

Witter may get the chance to prove that with a direct comparison. Rumours are circulating that Mayweather may vacate his title and move out of the division to face either Winky Wright or Zab Judah.

If that comes to pass the WBC would have to match their top two ranked light welterweight contenders – Witter and Gatti.

“Gatti’s a proven warrior but I’m convinced that Junior would bring way too much to the table for him,” added Hennessy.

“This would be another fight well worthy of a world title that would generate significant interest on both sides of the pond.”

Witter is also highly regarded by the other recognised governing bodies. Having recently consolidated his position as an elite fighter he now also finds himself WBA #3, IBF#3 and WBO #3.

His time is drawing near.

“I’m ready to make the move from a highly ranked contender to a highly regarded champion,” said Witter.

“I’m a premier player and I want to prove it right now. I don’t want to sit in the comfort zone and take easy touches. I want to prove I am the best by beating the best.”

Great news for Witter. I only hope the next time he is in the ring that the problems that have occured in his last 2 fights i.e. slowing down in th last 5 rounds dont pop up again cos he cant afforf that against the top level fighters weather it be PBF or anyone else like Tszyu or Gatti.

Best option in my opinion for him is if PBF vacates as i cannot see Witter beating PBF.

But anyway Keep on going Witter lad and win that belt and maybe this time next year we can be looking forward to a Witter - Hatton unification fight

Witter rules.

Gatti will be fighting at Welter so there will be no Witter and Gatti though.

He clearly won that fight against Kotelnik too as that dude did hardly anything for the first 6.

I was rooting through the current scene threads when i saw a similar subject and it seems that Witter is #1, Gatti is # 2 (who may move to Welterweight), Tszyu is # 3 (May Retire) & # 4 is some guy called Urango from Columbia. If PBF does vacate and both Tszyu & Gatti take different options that Could leave Witter - Urango for the vacant title, anyone know what this Urango fella is like ???

Current WBC rankings:

1 .- Junior Witter (GB) COMM/EBU
2 .- Arturo Gatti (Canada)
3 .- Kostya Tszyu (Australia)
4 .- Juan Urango (Colombia) LATINO
5 .- Arturo Morua (Mexico)
6 .- Vivian Harris (US)
7 .- Steve Forbes (US)
8 .- Paul Malignaggi (US) INTL
9 .- Herman Ngoudjo (Canada) NABF
10 .- Julio Garcia (Mexico) YOUTH

Apart from Gatti, Tszyu & Harris surely Witter would have no problems with the rest of the bunch would he ???

Witter needs to walk the walk instead of talking the talk. Apart from running out of steam late on, I thought he was impressive against N'dou but was terrible in his last fight. Not a good thing for a fighter trying to build his popularity.

Wasn't Tszyu planning to move to Welterweight after Hatton too?

Why isn't Hatton ranked by the WBC?

i hoep zoo fights mayweather im not being funny but i reckon Kostya might ko him.

he loves slicksters.

johnswan1 wrote:Why isn't Hatton ranked by the WBC?

Because he's the IBF champion.

I presume Hatton isnt ranked because he is IBF champion & that governing bodies dont rank other world champions, mind you i could be wrong.

If he continued.

I thought Witter looked awful in the Kotelnik fight, Kotelnik had obviously watched the N'dou fight and decided "Right, cover up, let Witter punch himself out, and then turn it on in the second half."

It was lucky for Witter Kotelnik wasn't a puncher or he could have been in trouble. Witter expends so much energy trying to knock his opponent's head off early on, that when it fails to happen he looked completely fucked for most of the rest of the fight.

Having said that, I'm pleased for Witter to have finally gotten some recognition, in truth he deserves the #1 spot as much as anyone, hopefully he can get his shot. Be interesting to see what happens with Zab and Floyd. I'm going for Mayweather, I don't think the size difference will make much difference as Zab isn't a true Welterweight. I think Zab might well get knocked the fornicate out as well.

FLoyd is a rarity in that he seems to carry power along with his finesse and his accuracy is such that he can hurt people with his combinations. There's so many similarities with Leonard's style.

I don't think Witter has the style to beat Mayweather, but boy I'd like to see him get the opportunity.

Foggy wrote:I presume Hatton isnt ranked because he is IBF champion & that governing bodies dont rank other world champions, mind you i could be wrong.

Correct.

If the bodies don't rank other bodies champions, is it therefore impossible for say an IBF champion to secure a mandatory challenge via. ranking against a WBC champion who doesn't want to fight him?

Yes. This is why unification fights are so rare. Takes a lot of organisation from promoters and plus more in the way of sanctioning fees.

Mayweather is supposed to fight Judah - will they definately make him give up the WBC or could he sit on it? Mayweather would rightly be a huge favourate would find it easy to catch Junior with fluries and should be able to avoid Juniors telegraphed bombs but if Witter does land a bomb Floyd could be allot less pretty. I think it would resemble the Corrales fight though.

I think Tyuzu/Gatti fights would be genuine 50-50 affairs. Gatti may go for a Witter fight if he can get the WBC back. I think Zoo would fight Witter - if Zoo wins Hatton may rematch him, if Witter wins he won't get a Hatton fight.

I have no clue why no ones tried to make Hatton-Gatti for entertainment value alone.

Gatti is moving up to Welterweight, he made it quite clear after the fight he was done at LW.

What they may do is make an interim championship, they can then give Floyd the option of holding on to the welterweight belt if he wins, or he just remains LW champ if he loses.

Ok , now i know the WBC doesn't know its arse from its elbow sometimes but the
NO2 Gatti has stated that he's moving to welter and can no longer make 140lbs.
NO 7 Steve Forbes has retired.

why are these ranked?

I think the only people not claiming to be moving up to welterweight are Pamela Anderson and Justin Timberlake.

Hatton-Gatti would have been good before Mayweather got his hands on him. I think Hatton would be far too much for Gatti to handle now and it would turn into a one sided beating rather than a competitive slugfest. And after the Mayweather humiliation, Hatton doesn't really have anything to gain by beating Gatti. Such a shame that Hatton-Gatti never got going a year or two ago.

Phenomenal-Nutrition wrote:Mayweather is supposed to fight Judah - will they definately make him give up the WBC or could he sit on it? Mayweather would rightly be a huge favourate would find it easy to catch Junior with fluries and should be able to avoid Juniors telegraphed bombs but if Witter does land a bomb Floyd could be allot less pretty. I think it would resemble the Corrales fight though.

I think Tyuzu/Gatti fights would be genuine 50-50 affairs. Gatti may go for a Witter fight if he can get the WBC back. I think Zoo would fight Witter - if Zoo wins Hatton may rematch him, if Witter wins he won't get a Hatton fight.

I have no clue why no ones tried to make Hatton-Gatti for entertainment value alone.

If he beats Judah and wants to keep the welterweight belts he will have to give up the WBC belt at 140. If he loses to Judah (unlikely) he can keep the WBC title and move back down. Or he can beat Judah, relinquish the belts immediately and move back to 140 for the WBC belt. In reality he has 3 titles at 147 if he wins that dont expect to see him back at 140 EVER.

Foggy wrote:... & # 4 is some guy called Urango from Columbia. If PBF does vacate and both Tszyu & Gatti take different options that Could leave Witter - Urango for the vacant title, anyone know what this Urango fella is like ???

Current WBC rankings:

1 .- Junior Witter (GB) COMM/EBU
2 .- Arturo Gatti (Canada)
3 .- Kostya Tszyu (Australia)
4 .- Juan Urango (Colombia) LATINO
5 .- Arturo Morua (Mexico)
6 .- Vivian Harris (US)
7 .- Steve Forbes (US)
8 .- Paul Malignaggi (US) INTL
9 .- Herman Ngoudjo (Canada) NABF
10 .- Julio Garcia (Mexico) YOUTH

Apart from Gatti, Tszyu & Harris surely Witter would have no problems with the rest of the bunch would he ???

Urango will fight in a IBF eliminator, so it will be Morua.

johnswan1 wrote:Hatton-Gatti would have been good before Mayweather got his hands on him. I think Hatton would be far too much for Gatti to handle now and it would turn into a one sided beating rather than a competitive slugfest. And after the Mayweather humiliation, Hatton doesn't really have anything to gain by beating Gatti. Such a shame that Hatton-Gatti never got going a year or two ago.

Styles make fights and Gatti actually stands some sort of chance against Hatton. Gatti could land on him, probably work at a similar rate, hit harder, take Rickys shots and land his own. Gatti couldn't land on Mayweather or see where the combinations were coming from, it would be a different story here.

How do people see Witter doing against Zoo or Gatti. I think he can get his shots off on both as each has leaky defenses - of course Witter isn't mr super elusive, especially after Round 5. I'd say he blows Gatti out in about 5rounds and has a war with Zoo with each of them hitting the canvas in a genuine 50-50 face off

If Witter didn't get Gatti out of there in 5, then he could be in for a rough ride. His shots are nowhere near as tight and crisp in combination as Mayweather's and he telegraphs punches a lot more. Gatti had to stop against Mayweather because he just couldn't tell where the punches were come from next and he was going to get an almighty bitch-slapping.

love to c witter get his lesson from mayweather.

i reckon we may c witter vs tszyu for the vacant belt. its a straight title shot for tszyu and we all know he ain't too keen on those rematches.