TIMOTHY BRADLEY W12 (split) JUNIOR WITTER

Of all those taking pleasure in Timothy Bradley’s upset win over Junior Witter, few, I suspect, will be more delighted than Ricky Hatton.

For what seems like ages, Witter has been challenging Hatton, often in an unpleasant, not to say insulting, fashion. All the while, Hatton steadfastly refused to give his British 140-pound rival what would have been by far Witter’s biggest payday.

Now Hatton has had an irritation removed from his life, thanks to the determined and disciplined performance by Bradley on Saturday night at Nottingham in the English midlands.

Although this was a split decision win for Bradley — in fact, a one point fight — there was no doubt in my mind that the 24-year-old from Palm Springs, CA, had done enough.

It was strange, really. Witter had seemed to be slipping after some unimpressive wins, but then he came back in fine style when knocking out Vivian Harris last September — “the best performance of his career,” as the boxing writer for Britain’s The Times trumpeted.

Yet on Saturday night, Witter was back to the cautious form of the fights with Andreas Kotelnik, Colin Lynes and Arturo Morua, and it cost him his WBC title as well as any hope of ever getting a fight with Hatton.

It is easy to say now, but Harris's alarmingly fragility probably made Witter look better than was truly the case. The spectacular finish made it seem that Witter, at the late age of 34, had somehow got things right again after a bad patch.

I have to hold my hands up and admit that the Harris KO win fooled me.Witter didn’t fool Timothy Bradley, though. The superbly conditioned, unbeaten young challenger fought the perfect fight, using his speed to get in and get out, jabbing to the body and stealing rounds with a quick punch here and there while Witter threatened and posed, promising much but delivering little.

I thought that Witter’s punching power would win the fight for him — not by blowing Bradley out but by inducing a sufficient amount of apprehension in the challenger to allow the veteran champion to sneak rounds on the scorecards and build up a winning margin.

That might indeed have happened had it not been for the big, overhand right that dumped Witter on the canvas late in the sixth round.

That one punch changed everything. It put Bradley into a position of psychological dominance because Witter was clearly affected by the knockdown. In order to get himself back into the fight, Witter needed to gamble a little, to land some heavy shots and impose himself. Yet now he was even more concerned about getting hit than he had been before the knockdown. All that Bradley had to do was to keep fighting just a little bit harder than Witter in most of the rounds — keep his nose in front, as it were — and he was always likely to find favour on the scorecards.

The ShoBox commentary team of Nick Charles and Steve Farhood were in no doubt that Bradley had romped home, but the long wait for the decision indicated a close call. So it was, with the Italian judge scoring in favour of Witter, 115-112, while the judges from Belgium and Mexico had Bradley ahead by 115-113 and 114-113 respectively.

With the fight in the balance, Witter did not show the authority, or the will to win, that one expects from a champion. As old-time British fight guys used to say, Witter was trying to fiddle his way through — and while Witter fiddled, Bradley fought.

Just one good, assertive round could have tilted things back in Witter’s favour, if only he had possessed the grit to go for it. Instead, Witter was still trying to win by playing it safe, tentative instead of trying to take command, throwing the occasional hook or right hand and almost in the same motion trying to get away.

Witter did land some punches, enough to inflict a nasty-looking bruise under Bradley’s left eye, anyway. The challenger, though, was steadily edging his way to victory, unperturbed by Witter’s constant switches of stance but wary not to walk into something. He fought a smart fight and he always, to me, looked like the fighter with the greater desire.

Bradley didn’t take too many chances, but he certainly took more than Witter, and it is so often true in boxing, and sometimes in life, that he who dares, wins.