The due is totally underrated. He has achieved everything in the sport, deserves more respect and credit.
Witter IMO would have had a 50/ 50 fight with Hatton, Ricky had very poor boxing skills and i think Whitter may well outbox Hatton, it's definitely a fight Ricky and FW wanted nothing to do with
Hatton, Magee, and Witter all called out eachother as they were similarly ranked at the time, Hatton and Magee fought eachother, but Witter (and this is well documented by anybody in the know) was absolutely terrified of Magee, he lost all credibility when Magee made him crap his pants at that press conference
hatton lost all credibility when he said on live tv he would fight witter 'lets get it made ' some fans are still waiting knowone can blame witter that the hatton fight never got made that lies with wicky :yep
:respect He didn't pop up on the radar of many of my fellow Yanks until a still relatively unknown Desert Storm went over and snatched his title, but Witter by that point was a shell. From the Judah loss until about 2007 he was a boxing insiders' h2h nightmare.
Well there's another interpretation of triangle logic's failure in boxing. Hatton very convincingly beat Magee (even after the rocky start), who got ducked by Witter, who got ducked by Hatton. :conf
How did Hatton automatically duck him because they never fought? That's general forum mentality. Hatton was simply ahead of witter career wise and was always a level above. Yes Witter could punch but so could Hatton. Hatton went on to rule a division and Witter went on and on about Hatton. Fair play to him for taking on all comers but that's what most fighters do as there are very few out there that can pick and choose. Witter was boring as hell to watch, if he wanted to reach out and get a bigger fan base he should have changed his style.
...so why did Hatton barely ever utter his name despite the British public making it plain this was the match-up they wanted? :think Boring or not (depending on the dance partner), Witter is someone whose name was often coupled with Hatton's and that would have been a blockbuster event for a good many years. I'm not saying Hatton was scared or even that he would've necessarily lost, but he almost certainly saw Witter as too much risk for the reward, or else it would've happened.
Done well to get a title, no one can take that away from him. Underated? maybe a little, However whenever he stepped up he lost
I know absolutely nothing about him, which going by reading his achievements, must mean he is very underrated!
I think if you become a world champ then a certain amount of respect should be shown. However in the modern time when there belts coming up from everywhere we have to admit it is easier to become a champion now then in a by gone era
Context is everything. I respect Witter's road to becoming and reign as world champ a lot more than, say, Vyacheslav Senchenko's. Witter captured the British, then Commonwealth, then Euro titles gradually stepping his way up and putting in the work to position himself to contend beating first top domestic and then European names. (2005 was a particularly impressive year - beating N'Dou, Kotelnik and Lynes in the span of eight months is quite a feat) He got past N'Dou in a WBC eliminator to earn his shot for the vacant belt, then bested Chop Cop for it, and defended with dominant showings against Morua and Harris both culminating in knockouts. Compare: Senchenko narrowly squeaked by countryman Nuzhnenko who in turn had taken an interim version of the WBA title (with the real champ never ceasing to be Miguel Cotto all the while) from the Frenchman and former Euro titlist Frederic Klose with a single defense by technical majority decision against Irving Garcia. Not a lot of value or heritage in that piece of tin, and Senchenko proceeded to scrape the bottom of the barrel for his three defenses prior to Malignaggi. Not all world champions are created equal. Witter's achievements positively dwarf Senchenko's when you delve below the surface, but at face value appear similar on paper.