by James Slater – Former WBC light-welterweight champion Junior Witter was a phone-in guest today on The Steve Bunce Boxing Hour on Setanta Sports, and “The Hitter” spoke about his upcoming clash with the unbeaten Devon Alexander. The 35-year-old former champ also gave his opinion of what would happen if he were to meet Amir Khan in an all-British showdown in the future. Such a fight is a possibility; if Witter can beat Alexander to reclaim the currently vacant WBC 140-pound crown, and if Khan can beat Andriy Kotelnik to take the WBA strap. Witter says he thinks Kotelnik will beat Khan in June, and that the fight isn’t all that likely. However, if Khan beats Kotelnik he would certainly take the fight..
First though, the switch-hitter must travel to The States and defeat 22-year-old Alexander – no easy feat at all.
Witter was asked how his training has been going for the July 11th bout.
“It’s going okay, as usual,” Witter said. “I’ve stayed in Sheffield to train for the fight. I’m relieved this fight has come off. I look and I think about all the things I’ve had that almost happened, almost happened, and I’m happy this fight happened.”
Witter said he is not too concerned about having to travel to Florida for the fight.
“Travelling is never the best of things, but I travel well,” Witter said. “I can perform well away. There’s a little bit of pressure on me and it makes me have to up my game, because you’ve got to win well abroad.”
Hugely self assured as he is, Witter obviously believes he will regain the world title he lost to Timothy Bradley when he gets in there with southpaw Alexander. But what about the possibility of a big UK showdown against Khan?
“Amir Khan’s not really on my radar,” Witter said. “If he wins the title [against Kotelnik] he becomes on my radar. Realistically, it’s a fight that can be made, and if he wins, perfect, I’ll look at it. I’d expect to knock him out within three rounds.”
Khan would certainly disagree strongly with such a prediction, but will the fans? Though he did well in beating a faded Marco Antonio Barrera last time out, Khan has yet to fully exorcise the demons and the memories of his 1st round destruction at the hands of Bredis Prescott last September. A win – an upset win in the opinion of Witter – over Kotlenik would take Khan a long way, but if a few weeks later Witter manages to win the WBC light-welter crown he would likely enter the talked-about unification bout as the favourite.
It’s still early days, of course; and neither guy has won yet. But a Khan-Witter clash would be a fight that would have all of Britain talking!