High Stakes
31/03/08
WBC light-welterweight champion Junior Witter makes his third defence of the title next Saturday (May 10) at the Nottingham Arena against highly-rated American Tim Bradley. It seems sure to be his toughest test yet.

Unbeaten Bradley (21-0, 11 early) crosses the Atlantic with a stellar reputation and has long been tipped as a future world champion after a top amateur career. At just 24yrs old he also has the advantage of youth over his Sheffield-based opponent, being 10 years his junior.

Witter himself acknowledges the threat that Bradley poses. ‘I give the guy a lot of credit for taking the fight and coming over here to come and try to take my title off me’ said Witter. ‘He’s fast, he can box and he can punch. He’s also aggressive and I know that he’ll come looking for me once the bell goes.

‘But for all the accolades he’s had and however good he thinks he is, nothing will prepare him for what he’s up against, and he’ll know exactly what I’m talking about the first time I clip him properly. Because the kid is unbeaten he’s got that amazing naiveté where he genuinely believes he’s the best. In fact, that self-belief makes him even more dangerous. But he’s never been in with anyone as fast or as strong as me.

‘I’m looking forward to that moment when he realises how much trouble he’s in. You can see it in their eyes. My power comes from both hands and from any angle. I’m hitting so hard in training at the minute and I just can’t wait for the fight.’

Junior’s trainer, Dominic Ingle, thinks that the Bradford born switch-hitter has a tough assignment. ‘I rate Bradley as a very tough fight for Junior. Bradley was a very good amateur and that shines through in his ringcraft, which is very, very good for a fighter of his age. He really does know his way round the ring. He can punch as well and he’s fresh, hungry and confident. In many ways this is going to be very hard for Junior because Junior is at that stage of his career, when he’s so close to getting himself a career-defining match, that he just can’t afford to make any mistakes. Bradley will capitalise, no doubt about it.

‘Training has gone very well although there’s always niggles and bruises to deal with. His hands are fine though and the knee that he damaged before the Vivian Harris fight by playing football against the Germans at Wembley seems to have healed completely. Junior always stays in shape – even when he had a couple of months off to recover from the knee surgery he only put a few pounds on and he was straight back in the gym as soon as possible. That stands him in good stead’.

Witter’s stunning demolition of the undeniably world class Guyanan Harris, stopping him in seven,  was arguably his best performance to date and has raised expectations from his fans and the boxing public in general. But what the Witter camp kept quiet before the fight was the serious knee injury that Junior picked up playing in a charity football match – an injury that required an operation the following week and two months of rest and rehab.

‘The day after I did my knee I literally couldn’t walk. As you can imagine, Dom wasn’t best pleased with me! It had a major affect on the quality of my training because it happened only five weeks before the fight. We really limped through those last weeks, literally! But believe it or not I actually didn’t feel it at all on the night, which I can only attribute to the adrenalin kicking in and taking over. The ligaments were frayed and needed quite a major operation to correct.

‘But there’s been no problems this time. I’ve been sparring with three excellent, very fast kids from our gym – Nadeem Siddique, Mushen Nasser and Adnan Amar – and that’s kept me on my toes. Dom and Brendan have also had a good look at the tapes of Bradley and they’ve spotted a couple of weaknesses which we’ve worked on specifically. I’ll not say what they are now, though – we’ll leave that as a surprise for Bradley on the night!’

Witter has been in full training since January, initially preparing for a match against Demetrius Hopkins which the American pulled out of. ‘That’s actually made it harder because Junior has in effect been in training for two separate fights and that break in the middle, where he took a week or so off, was a bit of a pain to be honest. But you just can’t maintain that sort of intensity for too long’ says Dominic. ‘But, as ever, he’s done the business in the gym and I can honestly say he’s in the best shape of his life. He’s whacking the pads, his weight is spot on, he’s at 6% body fat and 42 resting heart beat – those stats put him right up there with elite athletes from any discipline.’

Despite respecting the threat carried by Bradley, Junior is as eerily confident as ever. ‘As far as I am concerned, there is no doubt whatsoever that I am the best light-welterweight in the world. I’m the fastest and strongest and Dominic Ingle is a master at getting me in shape. Bradley will very quickly realise what he’s up against, and I just can’t predict anything other than an early stoppage – something like round four.’