Airing now on Showtime Extreme: Timothy Bradley vs. Junior Witter - May 10, 2008

Huh, it was actually the main event.

Showcase of two super middleweight prospects with nothing on the line (literally nothing - it shouldn't have even been scheduled for twelve) > 140lb world title match. Okay, seems legit.

(and yes, I realize Froch was already more of a ticket seller than Witter. Still doesn't make it right...)

 

To be fair, it was supposed to be a Froch vs. Inkin final WBC eliminator and Rybacki was a late replacement (with two other substitute opponents named and dropping out in less than a week between Inkin's withdrawal and fight night) but still. It should have been a 10-rounder and subordinate on the bill to Witter vs. Bradley, in deference to Witter being a champ.

 

Man, what ever happened to Inkin? His name was mentioned in all sorts of match-ups with the contemporary best at 168lbs that never materialized - Calzaghe, Froch, Bute, etc. First taste of defeat (and it was a close one, him vs. Balzsay) and he took his ball and went home. :-(

That match with Froch could have been nice action. Inkin beat him (and Jeff Lacy, totaling a 200-15 record) in the amateurs so it would have been not only a world title springboard for the Cobra but a grudge match.

 

Rybacki was trash, but man could he take a lumping.

He deserves kudos even lasting until the fourth as outgunned as he was.

 

Farhood yelling at Froch over his flying uppercut.

"You should NOT do that! :nono"

 

Polski on Polski violence! :emma I can't look. (but I can't look away)

 

Definitely a Brit stoppage, there were literally 100 moments it would have been more appropriate to wave it off than when John Keane chose (right as Froch is badly missing a pair of uppercuts with Rybacki basically standing next to him after dodging - super anticlimactic :rofl) - but at the same time, Rybacki was a chew toy in there with a pit bull. It was a brutal mismatch and he wasn't going to do anything to change the direction it was heading.

 

Good interchange between Charles & Farhood wrapping up the night.

They give Bradley full credit for surprising both of them (both admitting they assumed he was beyond his depth here and had no chance leaving the UK as champion) and praise his performance after having started the night criticizing him as unworthy and the WBC for installing a mere prospect yet to ever face anybody world class as mandatory. They eat their crow and doff their caps to him getting it done on hustle, desire, and slightly dirty and mostly awkward but intelligent aggression in his first step up - and quite a major step at that.

 

Full disclosure: before watching live as Bradley went and fetched his belt across the Atlantic (though I wasn't yet doing RBR) my knowledge of him was extremely limited, and my opinion fairly low.

His previous couple of ShoBox appearances were nothing to herald the arrival of a world beater - just a solid Friday night TV fighter. Even the fact that he was coming off a wide UD over Vázquez meant nothing as Vázquez was still a nobody himself - and his only loss being a SD to Canelo Alvarez didn't work in his favor because in 2007-2008 nobody outside Mexico had ever heard of teenaged Canelo (he wasn't even signed to Golden Boy yet)

My primary impression of Bradley prior to his Witter upset was a negative one. He was actually scheduled to meet Jose Luis Castillo in March of 2008 (just two months before he fought Witter!), in an eliminator to determine Witter's mandatory. This was seen by most as being a "gimme" for Castillo, who got penciled in for the world title shot as though Bradley were just a trifling matter. Some were upset that Castillo even had to waste time on Bradley, who perception was hadn't even really paid his dues and earned a spot in an eliminator. Of course, JLC came in over the welterweight limit (147.5lb) for his light welterweight title eliminator and that was that. Bradley was then gifted the #1 contender spot by the WBC in what amounted to a walkover. So he went from green prospect in an eliminator he didn't earn to green prospect in a world title bout without ever throwing a punch - and the Castillo fan in me resented him for it.

...but yeah, he won me over immediately by the end of that evening with his dogged grit and determination, not flustered in the least by Witter's spoiling nor awed by the bright lights or intimidated by the Nottingham crowd. :thumbsup

It wasn't until he returned to home soil and made a few defenses against more recognizable names in Cherry, Holt and Campbell that American TV audiences caught on, but from May 2008 on I knew Desert Storm was special and on his way to being up there with the country's pound for pound best. atriot

 

Pic?

 

It actually was, even though Junior got increasingly negative as it wound down (esp. the championship rounds) and even though Bradley was jittery and did a lot of goring and leading with the head. It was definitely a mess, but a somehow aesthetically pleasing mess. Bradley forced exchanges and Witter threw back in unglued desperation, making for some good action.

 

Poor fella never fought again, Froch spanked him so bad. :verysad

He actually had a halfway decent W on his record, too, which I'd never realized (TKO of Dodson) - just assumed his 15-0 when he met Froch was padded up with Euro bums...which, besides Dodson, it mostly was.