I think Hatton would of beaten Witter but its a shame we never got to see this fight, could of been like a benn v eubank type of feud.
There is a problem with the original post and witter wasn't a lethal puncher look who he stopped in that 15 ko run? Nobody of any note really Euro fighters at best and some weren't even that good. Hatton was open but his chin was solid at this point and he would have made witter work for 3 minutes of every round not pose for some, and fence for some. I think Hatton's foot speed and work rate would have been troublesome for witter and his ownpower and strength I just think Hatton had more advantages. Witters switch hitting would have been his key to win I am not sure he would keep Hatton at bey in the later rounds Witter was a very good fighter and achieved a lot considering he didn't have the fan base of Hatton/Calzaghe etc and he was screwed by HBO after the Judah fight who was prime at the time. I have never really understood why he was black listed look at Curtis Stevens he was involved in one of the worst fights of all time but still gets TV time stateside. He does have some good wins over Koltenik and Harris but he had nearly 40 fights by the time he got his world title and with his style was never going to be fighting late in his career like a JMM or someone
^ this its what real boxing fans deserve:deal prove your the best in your country before cliaming to be mixing with world elite boxing fans get robbed like this to often of late imo
Junior Witter never ducked anybody?? Look up Kelson Pinto. Then look what Hatton said about fighting Pinto. Witter wanted the big money but didnt want to fight his way there.
always felt hatton avoided witter like the plague , witters movement power and angles woudve troubled ricky. people seem to think ricky was unbeatable , he was dropped by eamonn magee and boxed safe, thaxton cut him and gave him a tough fight , and i really think witter would of beaten him , my opinion only , but i think witters win over a prime kotelnik who was robbed years later vs devon ... was as a good a win as any of hattons bar the tsyzu fight , who fought once in 3 years before and never after ! think witters legacy has been damaged short term by fighting on way past his prime , a shame ! but not many win the lot , and junior did , btw im no fan of junior ''up the shitter '' witter lol !
Tszyu fought once in three years before Hatton? Thats news to me,he was WBC,WBA and IBF champion and he defended the titles beating up Ben Tackie and stopping Jesse James Leija,as far as I know he suffered an injury and could not defend his WBC and WBA titles but came back and sparked Sharba Mitchell in three rounds.Make no mistake Kostya was still he best Jr Welterweight in the world when Hatton beat him,I find it a little bit silly you would try and dismiss that by saying he had only fought once in three years which is not true. Long story short Kotelnik is Witters best win and Tszyu is Hattons. Kotelnik isnt fit to hold Kostya Tszyu's smelly jock and neither is Witter.
I understand what you are saying here but the fact is Witter openly tweaked his style after the Zab fight. He was sitting down on his punches and cleaning out 15 in a row is no mean feat. Just watch the Lauri fight as an example when he banged him out in 2. He also decked n'dou a couple of times when no one could budge him. Plus I can barely ever remember seeing Junior hurt, I know Bradley decked him but he wasn't out of there. I simply can't see how Hatton would have he way with Witter like that.
you make good points the Ndou fight was a great performance early on but he faded as the fight went on and Hatton was leagues above Ndou. Did witter break a hand? cant remember Lauri was a tuff trial horse but even so he was nobody at world level id expect a world class fighter who could supposedly bang to take him out in a few rounds. Hatton was still young when he faces Thaxton he was a tuff grisled fighter still competing at a decent level years later when he was almost shot. Even managed to fight for a euro level belt Junior never really got hurt because of his style was very awkward for most people to work out and to be honest in the run of his 15KOs there are some really poor fighters in there. People complain about hattons completion when had the wbu but at least he was fighting guys like Pep who though well past it had at least done something in his career(went 10 with a young floyd, commonwealth belt, ibo unlike some of juniors competition at the same time who had 10 or something fights juniors style would have been awkward for hatton but we saw in the ndou fighter witter could be got to with pressure and prime for prime i just see hatton being able to impose himself with his work rate and maul junior which he wouldn't have handled.
Good post and I think he'd be rated/liked more if he gave up the Hatton thing when Hatton was over in the States. It just pissed people off and by that point the reasons they weren't fighting were obvious. Also his showboating is the worst I've ever seen! Still, lost a relatively close fight to Bradley.