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BY MATT BOZEAT
JUNIOR Witter has two professional boxers and 18 amateurs in his gym in Rotherham.
“I teach them the basics,” he said, “and then we go from there. I encourage them to do what’s best for them.
“I don’t tell them they have to box like me – because most people can’t.”
Witter was a product of the Ingles’ gym and their style worked for him.
He won every major honour as a fighter – and then there are the ones that got away.
He says a clash with Ricky Hatton is “one of the biggest fights that’s never happened in Britain” and even Floyd Mayweather Jr swerved the box-of-tricks from Bradford.
“I was the No 1 for the WBC light-welterweight title when Mayweather had the belt,” said Witter.
“He had six months to defend against me, then they gave him a three-month extension and then he gave up the title and moved up to welterweight.
“I was knocking everybody out at the time, but nobody in America knew me and you can see Mayweather’s people thinking: ‘We don’t need him.’
“He was a helluva thinking fighter and hit solid – but I was a thinking fighter who hit solid.
“He only fought fighters who stood in front of him. He didn’t fight thinking fighters.
“Mayweather said around the time that Emanuel Augustus gave him his hardest fight and he boxed a lot like me.
“That style beats Floyd Mayweather – and that was my style.
“I looked at Floyd and thought: ‘I would beat you.’
“But then again, I had to think that. I still think I would have done better than anyone else against him.”
Mayweather’s move up to 147lbs left Witter and DeMarcus ‘Chop Chop’ Corley to contest the vacant WBC belt, at Alexandra Palace in September, 2006.
Witter was 32 years old when he finally got his chance and in Corley, he faced a solid southpaw counter puncher from Washington who had lost the WBO championship to Zab Judah on a split and had his moments in losses to Mayweather and Miguel Cotto.
“I knew I had to dominate,” said Witter. “I had to lead, set the pace and make him work. If it was a chess match, with only a punch or two in it, I wasn’t going to get it. Nobody was going to do me any favours.”
The rounds were close – until Witter made a breakthrough in the fifth.
As Corley pulled out, Witter clipped him with a short whipping right hook and for a split second, he didn’t know where he was. The American wobbled back on unsteady legs with his hands by his sides and Witter jumped all over him. Corley ended up on knees and though it was ruled a slip, the fight had changed.
“That shot didn’t land clean,” said Junior, “but it still hurt him and it put him in his shell. It took a lot to get him out of it.”
Witter went on to win unanimously.
“It was surreal to get there,” he said.
“I look back on my career now and think: ‘I wasn’t given anything. I fought for everything and got every belt that mattered, the British, Commonwealth, European and world. I had setbacks and lay-offs and got through it. I’m proud of what I achieved.”
For years, Witter was a fighter nobody wanted to fight.
He got that reputation at Glasgow’s Hampden Park on the Mike Tyson-Lou Savarese undercard in June, 2000.
Witter was a 15-0-2 contender for the British title, Zab Judah near the top of the pound-for-pound lists and at nine days’ notice, Witter agreed to challenge him for the IBF title.
“A couple of months earlier, the guy I was living with got some Zab Judah fights on video,” said Witter, “and we sat there watching him knock people out. I thought: ‘He’s brilliant, the best of the best,’ but when the chance came to fight him, I thought: ‘This could change my life. Anything can happen – and that’s the thrill of boxing.’
“I thought I could nick it off him. I thought that if I could do a bit more than him in every round I could beat him and if it was a six-rounder I might have done.”
As it was, Judah kept his belt with a unanimous points win.
“That fight changed things,” said Witter. “He was the best of the best, but when I clipped him, I hurt him. If I had landed bombs on him, I would have taken him out. I had the skill and the confidence and now I had to let the power come through.”
Witter won his next 15 fights inside five rounds – including a two-round demolition of Giuseppe Lauri he regards as a career highlight.
“I didn’t get credit for being a puncher,” said Witter, who hit opponents very hard with punches they didn’t see coming.
The fight Witter – and many millions more – wanted eluded him.
“I thought the [Ricky] Hatton fight was close to happening after I lost the world title to (Timothy) Bradley [in 2008],” he said, “but then they were saying: ‘He doesn’t bring anything to the table, he’s not a world champion, he hasn’t got any fans.’
“It’s one of the biggest fights that’s never happened in Britain and it would have been an easy fight for me.
“His style suited me down to the ground. I could see what he was going to do before he did it. I knew he was strong, but people don’t realise how strong I was on the inside. Sparring partners thought they could pin me down and steamroller me – but I used to push them back.
“I couldn’t see anyway how he could have beaten me – unless I had an off night. That was unlikely because all the motivation would have been there. The crowd would have been against me and I respected his power, so that would have switched me on.
“Both the Mayweather and Hatton fights should have happened. I did everything I could to make them happen. I won fights and I made noise, but I just think they didn’t want them.
“I got as far as I did through stubbornness, self-belief and the people I had around me in the gym. I would look around and think: ‘I’m going to get there. I just need to get these people in the ring.’”
Witter remembers a round of sparring making a huge impression on him.
“This guy came over I had never seen before,” he remembered, “and I thought: ‘I spar Naz [Prince Naseem Hamed], so I’m okay with you, whoever you are.’
“He stood there in front of me with his hands on his knees and I thought: ‘He’s taking the piss, I’m having him for that.’ He set a trap and I fell into it. He schooled me. I readjusted, but that round taught me so much. It taught me not to underestimate anyone, be smart, don’t be obvious and concentrate on what you’re doing, not what your opponent is doing.”
Martin Smith finished his career with a 15-4-5 record and Witter took what he learned from sparring him to wind up his opponents.
“It’s good to tell them what you’re going to do and then go and do it anyway,” he said. “That really winds them up. Tell them what shot you’re going to hit them with, so they know it’s coming – and then hit them with it anyway.”
The Ingles saw the potential in Witter and weren’t afraid to match him tough on his debut.
Cam Raeside was the Midlands Area welterweight champion with an 8-1 record and went into the six-rounder with a five-pound weight advantage and the crowd behind him.
“I dropped him, beat him up and got a draw,” said Witter, “and I thought it was going to go up!
“One of his fans got on the ring apron and swung for me! It was crazy.
“I didn’t understand pro boxing. I said afterwards: ‘What’s a draw?’ In amateur boxing, you win or lose. I thought my career was over. I thought: ‘If you can’t win your first fight, what’s the point in carrying on?’”
Witter did carry on and, in only his 10th fight, he took on Jan Bergman, beaten only by Kostya Tszyu in 36 previous fights. The South African’s record showed 27 early wins.
“I took it at two days’ notice,” said Witter. “John [Ingle] told me: ‘He’s okay, not bad’ and that I shouldn’t stand in front of him.
“I danced around him, switching and jabbing.
“That win should have put me on the international stage – but it didn’t. The fight was on at six o’clock, Sky recorded it, but didn’t show it and I hardly got a line in Boxing News.”
Witter outpointed Corley for the vacant WBC title and he stopped Arturo Morua and Vivian Harris in defences before the belt was lost to Timothy Bradley on a split points decision.
The decisive round was the sixth, when Bradley scored a knockdown.
“Without the knockdown I would have won,” said Witter, “and I still thought I won with the knockdown.
“But I shouldn’t have been in the ring. My dad started chemotherapy and I had four months of going to and from hospital before the fight.
“The fight was put back as well after I had peaked. He was good, but nothing special. They weren’t interested in a rematch.”
Witter’s bid to regain his belt ended in an eight-round retirement loss to Devon Alexander in August, 2009, a hand injury ruling him out. “He was sharp,” said Witter.
Junior carried on boxing until a month after his 41st birthday.
He walked away after losing a debatable verdict to Ahmed El Mousaoui (21-1-1) in France and set up Witter’s Boxing Academy in Rotherham.
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