DEVON ALEXANDER vs JUNIOR WITTER

Two intriguing 140-pound bouts top the bill when Showtime presents Timothy Bradley in a championship defence against Nate Campbell backed up by a fight for the vacant WBC title between Junior Witter and Devon Alexander at Rancho Mirage, CA, on Saturday.

There is a similarity about these fights, with younger, unbeaten boxers going in against seasoned, dangerous veterans.

Alexander, only 22, has never faced anyone like Witter, the 35-year-old former champion from England whose only loss in the last nine years was on a split decision against Bradley in the U.K. 15 months ago. While Alexander has won 18 fights in a row, Witter has had 41 fights, his only losses coming against Zab Judah, when he came in as a substitute and boxed a survival type of fight, and then the one against Bradley.

“I think it’s going to be a very interesting fight,” Alexander’s trainer, Kevin Cunningham, said in a phone conversation. “Witter’s an experienced veteran, but I think Devon’s going to have too much speed and youth, and Devon’s even stronger, just the total package.”

Bradley showed the way to beat Witter, keeping intelligent pressure on him, scoring points but not getting carried away with success.

Cunningham agrees that the key to beating Witter is to refuse to let him get comfortable in a fight.

“If you set back there and let him dictate what’s going on, then he’s in good shape,” Cunningham said, “but Devon’s going to be aggressive, he’s going to be busy, fast hands, combinations, and I just think he’s gonna be too much for him. He’s going to apply pressure, but he’s got to be smart because Junior’s kinda tricky.”

Witter is indeed an artful fighter. He switches stances from orthodox to southpaw, makes flashy moves and is constantly trying to draw the other man onto a big punch.

Although Witter was disappointing in the fight with Bradley, he had the burden of knowing that his father was seriously ill with cancer, while I understand that he suffered an ankle injury about a week before the bout, which restricted his mobility.

Bradley was too young and quick, and scored the only knockdown of the fight, but there was always the sense that Witter could change things with just one big punch.

When I interviewed Bradley for Boxing Monthly after the fight he told me that he felt that it was important to keep Witter guessing and not simply go right at him. Watching videos of Witter, he said he noticed that “when people got aggressive with him, he picked them to pieces ... I kept my head moving and my feet moving, and he didn’t know when I was going to attack”.

I would expect a similar sort of fight from Alexander — controlled aggression, busy attacks from out of his southpaw style, trying to keep Witter from getting set but at the same time making sure he doesn’t stay directly in front of the veteran for too long.

Witter has the unconventional, hands-down style that one expects from fighters produced by trainer Brendan Ingle at his gym in Sheffield in central England. Lately, Ingle’s son, Dominic, has been handling the day-to-day training duties, although Brendan offers tactical advice. “Junior wasn’t himself against Bradley, but he’s been back to his best form in the gym and he’s punching very hard,” Brendan told me before leaving for the U.S. “We’re expecting a win.”

At his best, Witter is a difficult proposition for anyone. He looked spectacular in a seventh-round knockout win over Vivian Harris, for instance. Unfortunately, one cannot be sure which Witter will show up on any given night. The Witter who destroyed Harris and racked up a string of KO wins not so long ago might be considered too good for most junior welters. Then, however, we have the Witter who fritters away rounds by posing when he should be punching.

Witter looked good in his last fight when he blew out Victor Castro in three rounds — although the Argentinean is a journeyman type, he had been stopped only once in 33 fights. If Witter cannot catch his opponent early, however, he tends to struggle. He was under pressure in the later rounds against Lovemore Ndou, Colin Lynes and Andreas Kotelnik, while in the fight with Bradley he never really got started.

Alexander doesn’t have Witter’s experience, of course, but he was a U.S. national amateur champion, he’s been the 12-round distance twice with no trouble at all and he has boxed many rounds in the gym with one of the smartest fighters in the business, Cory Spinks. Form suggests he is at the very least on Witter’s level because each of them defeated DeMarcus “Chop Chop” Corley by comparable margins on points.

It helps Alexander a little that the fight is in the U.S., but it isn’t as if he is fighting in front of a hometown crowd in St. Louis — and Witter has won in California before, when he outscored Lovemore Ndou.

I do not make Alexander a big favourite in the fight but I think he has the youth, energy and workrate to overcome Witter’s experience, hitting power and unorthodox moves.

It concerns me that Witter has been running down Amir Khan in interviews when I would much prefer it if he was focused solely on Alexander. I seem to recall that Witter was more interested in challenging Ricky Hatton last year than he was in talking about his fight with Bradley, and we know what happened there.

Alexander will, I think, hustle his way to a win by decision, but there is an enigmatic quality about Witter. This is a last-chance situation for Witter. His career is on the line and, after his outlandish claims that Hatton was avoiding him and that Khan isn’t in his league, he will frankly look a little foolish if he loses this fight. Sometimes, when a fighter absolutely has to deliver, he does deliver. So, while I am going with Alexander, I must confess to a degree of doubt because no one can be sure whether the good, the bad or the indifferent Witter will be in the ring until the fight begins.