Witter KOs Harris; Judah Stinks Up FNF

by Kevin Gonzalez on Sep 8, 2007 12:01 PM EDT in News Analysis Comment 4 comments

In the most important fight of the weekend, Junior Witter defended his WBC junior welterweight belt by stopping former champ Vivian Harris in 7 rounds. Despite the fact that he was the favorite, I think this is a very impressive win for Witter, who has been calling out Ricky Hatton for ages. I don't know if he'll be getting his hands on Hatton any time soon, but this win should open the door to bigger fights. Honestly, I wasn't that sold on Witter before last night, but from what I understand he put on an impressive performance in Doncaster. Maybe one of you UK readers who actually saw the fight can give us a few more details about it. One thing's for sure, after this loss, we probably won't be hearing from Vivian Harris again for a while. At best, a Friday Night Fights slot next season.

Speaking of which: Zab Judah won a comfortable 10-round decision over journeyman Edwin Vasquez in the FNF Season Finale. Believe it or not, this is Judah's first win in over two years, and the first one in his last five fights (Losses to Baldomir, Mayweather and Cotto, and a NC against Ruben Galvan). Yet Judah thinks his next fight ought to be another superfight. He actually had the balls to call out the winner of Cotto-Mosley last night. In my honest opinion, Judah looked far from impressive in beating Vasquez. Consider this: Vasquez's record was 3-5-2 in his previous 10 fights. Judah couldn't even knock him down. He kept his hands down all night, looking to land a KO uppercut that he was never able to land. The winner of Cotto-Mosley? You've got to be fucking kidding me. Go out and beat somebody, Zab. And I'm not talking about kicking some poor-ass guy in the face when he's already on the ground:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2015089624

(Yeah, that's really Zab kicking some poor-ass guy in the face when he's already on the ground). I'm talking about a decent opponent. Go fight Margarito, Clottey, Collazo, Demetrius Hopkins. Rack up a little winning streak. Then we can talk.

As an aside, Miguel Cotto and Shane Mosley were the in-studio guest analysts last night, and, boy, there was not a shred of animosity in the air. They might as well have been holding hands. On the one hand, it's nice to see sportsmanship and professionalism during the promotional campaign, but these two were just way too chill. When Kenny asked both fighters how the fight would play out, they were both like, "Well, you know, it's gonna be a good fight." They didn't even predict victories for themselves! I have to say, though, I'm impressed with how much Cotto keeps growing as a professional: sitting there with Kenny with no translator in sight when two years ago he wouldn't dare utter a word in English to Larry Merchant. Of course, the truth is, we don't need animosity or hatred in this promotion. We all know how fake that usually is. And we all know that styles make fights, and this one is destined to be a very, very good one. I was going on about it last night, and when I woke up this morning, my girlfriend gave me a print-out of two Ticketmaster tickets. Cotto-Mosley. November 10th. The Garden. I have the coolest girlfriend in the world. And I'll motherfucking be there.

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Same old arrogant asshole Zab, now with one-fifth the talent. If he fought Cotto again, he'd get wrecked up worse than last time, I think. If he fought Mosley, he'd just get destroyed and I don't think he could last six rounds against that type of speed and power. If he fought Margarito, he'd get bombed. A Clottey-Judah fight could be interesting, I suppose, though I hesitate to call any potential Zab fight "interesting" at this point.

by SC on Sep 8, 2007 3:44 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Kev

Kev, I'm so jealous! Now I wanna go. Were your tickets through a ticket agency? How much were they?

I hope Madison is rocking and your novel, finishing. Iowa City is not as much fun without your lazy ass, that's for sure. Let me know where you got the tickets.

by Matt Miller on Sep 8, 2007 6:12 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Witter-Harris/Zab

For Kev

Not going to be as good as Scotts reports mate:

R1 Junior Witter starts southpaw, both on outside finding range. JW is trying to draw Vivian Harris in and catches him with a few jabs. Few punchs land this round , both waiting from a mistake from the other man. Even
10-10

R2 JW starts quicker, both countering. Harris trys to jab his way in. VH looks nervous to attack as JW steps in with a hard left that gets Harris attention. JW looks sharp as he lands a hard right! Witter trys a strange outside left uppercut smash followed by a right which missis only to be caught flush by a VH right. Witters legs buckle for a second. Both now have felt shots. Witter nods approval at Harris at Bell. Good Round
10-9 Witter
20-19 Witter

R3 Both trade in first 30 secs, landing nice shots. They both go back on outside, witter switching , taking turns to gain advantage. Witter is being that bit busier and Harris can not hit JW chin which is up in the air in the exchanges. Witters round.
10-9 Witter
30-28 Witter

RD4 Witter is circling Harris at Bell. JW is holding his left out as a range finder and VH catches him with a few rights. Witter keeps switching stances and a confused look is now on VH face. JW starts landing lefts at will then a right and over Harris goes. He is on floor talking to referee who rules this a slip. There feet got tangled. He bounces up and a few seconds later Junior steps in with a classy left hook and Harris hits the deck for real! He is sat on his arse listening to the count. The crowd are screaming. Up at seven and survives the rest of the round.
10-8 Witter
40-36 Witter

RD5 Harris not looking too happy in corner. Witter starts right handed to hit Harris with lefts. JW is acurate tonight from all angles. Harris starts to hold, When he stands off he is getting hit , When he moves in its the same. Easily JWs round as the crowd chant "Junior Junior" at the bell.
10-9 Witter
50-45 Witter

RD6 Harris has turned up at last. He starts better this round. He is landing a few sneaky rights and is putting JW off his gameplan. VH is looking good now coming forward. He has to his is way behind at this point. He is getting closer and lands a good right at the bell. Harris coming back.
10-9 Harris
59-56 Witter

RD7 Both fighters open up in VH corner. Harris is now taking chances as he follows JW to his corner. Harris attacks and Junior spins off ropes and lands with a Vicious left hook which drops Harris , gumshield flying out! The referee counts over Harris as his head is on bottom rope , he is in a total fog. He moves at the count of nine and its over. Witter wins with fantastic KO

What suprised me is in the post fight interview there was no mention of Hatton for once. Every oppotunity Junior has had , he has been calling out Hatton. He says he would not mind Paul Malignaggi for his next fight. Another light-welter champ Gavin Rees could be a option, But Gavin Rees will lose his title in his first defence he is nothing special.

Oh and Zab Judah is finished.

He is not a machine..he is a man

by mrdink on Sep 11, 2007 3:12 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Thanks

Thanks a lot for posting this, mrdink. I wish we could've seen this fight here in the US. I think this is part of why a lot of people (me included) underestimate some of the European fighters (particularly in the non-heavyweight divisions). No one gave Felix Sturm a chance in hell against De La Hoya, for example, but Sturm ended up schooling Oscar with his jab. A lot of people picked Lacy to beat Calzaghe.

It sounds like Witter looked very strong in this one. Too strong, according to Vivian Harris, who, in an interview with Boxingtalk flat-out accused Witter of taking performance-enhancing drugs and having ilegally wrapped gloves. Whatever. When it comes down to it, we're talking about a guy who got KO'ed by Carlos Maussa. I'm not buying his excuses this time around. Since Ricardo Torres is most likely on his way to a rematch with Holt, I'd love to see Witter face-off with Malignaggi. It could be a very interesting fight: Malignaggi has a bit more speed and boxing ability, and Witter, who is a pretty good boxer himself, would have the edge in power.

by Kevin Gonzalez on Sep 11, 2007 1:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs