By Kenny Rushby: First we had the John Murray fight against Youseff Al Hamadi. The undefeated Murray started as clear favourite against a guy with a pretty poor record (4-8-1(1)), but it quickly became apparent that Al Hamadi’s record was slightly misleading. For me, he looked more aggressive, landing not only more punches but more telling punches too. Murray was very lucky indeed to get the decision, and although he’ll want to wipe this one from memory quickly I suggest he study it and take on board his mistakes – most notably a poor guard through the middle. Personally, I gave this fight to the challenger.
Then we saw Junior ‘The Hitter’ Witter do very little hitting, and getting hit a lot by the faster, younger, stronger fight Timothy Bradley. This is one U.S fighter I’ll be watching out for, I thought he was very impressive tonight. Witter simply couldn’t deal with his speed and Witter’s style of holding his left glove out front was his undoing – he was so open to the right hand I’m suprized he went down just the once. I honestly couldn’t believe the scorecards on this one, how one judge gave it 115-112 to Witter is beyond me. Bradley won by about 8 rounds, in my opinion. Witter counter-punched well in a few rounds but was always out-worked. I thought Witter would really turn it on tonight, prime time UK TV slot and his chance for the big money fights he’s been craving against the Hatton’s of the division. He can kiss goodbye to those now. 34 yrs old and just lost his World Championship belt. He blew it in my opinion. As a Brit, I’d have loved to see him and Hatton get it on, but the only way that’ll happen now is if Hatton loses his next couple of fights.
Lastly, we saw Carl Froch demonstrate his punching power against a game but out-classed opponent Albert Rybacki 16-1-(8) – full credit to the previously unbeaten 37 yr old for taking it at such short notice, but it was a total mis-match and told us nothing new about Froch’s real potential. He’s begging for a real opponent to really showcase his skill and power against.
Overall I was disappointed by the judging tonight, there’s no wonder the American fighters are loathe to come over to the UK and fight with decisions like I saw tonight. But a big positive was Bradley – who came across as a respectful, down-to-earth guy afterwards, and was 100% right in what he said about Witter thinking about Hatton instead of him. Then Witter said afterward he thought ‘he’d done enough to win the fight’? Sorry Junior, nothing doing there, and I’d stop thinking about Hatton now as well.