By Mark Vester
Despite receiving warnings from the camp of UK rival Ricky Hatton, WBC junior welterweight champion Junior Witter continues his verbal assault in the press. Several weeks ago, Hatton's camp told Witter that as long as he continues to slag Ricky in the press, he would never get the chance to fight him.
In a recent interview, this time with The Sunday Times, Witter says that Hatton has avoided him for years and continues to avoid him to this day.
“Hatton has avoided fighting me for years and he’s still avoiding me,” Witter said. “I look on it and think that life’s not fair and that’s just it. I’ve got a saying I use when a couple of my friends ask me how I’m doing. ‘I’m still black,’ I tell them. I could say, ‘I’m still Irish or I’m still Pakistani.’ Anyone who has been persecuted over the years for reasons that are unjust, that’s how I feel sometimes. But that’s life. Life’s not fair and people aren’t fair. Things go wrong and you don’t get what you deserve all the time. So you make the best of what you’ve got. I’ve got my health, I’ve got good friends around me, a good team behind me, a good woman. My life is truly fruitful. Do I think I could beat Ricky Hatton? Of course I do. I have no doubt at all and he knows it, too."
Witter said that Hatton is a flawed fighter, built up by the perfect matchmaking of former promoter Frank Warren, and says that Hatton's popularity is attributed from coming around at the right time - when people were looking for someone to like because they hated the man of the hour, Naseem Hamed.
"Technically, he’s limited. He has a big heart, he’s fit when he steps in the ring and he’s driven. He’s also good at what he does, pressuring opponents and wearing them down. But that wasn’t enough to beat Mayweather and it wouldn’t be enough against me. Ricky was lucky because he came around at the right time, straight after Naz whose personality and arrogance people had grown to hate. Hatton was white, from Manchester, loved his football, drank too much and was a typical lad. His style was basic and easy to understand," Witter said.
"Frank Warren built him up brilliantly and people tuned in because he’s not an unlikeable guy. Every so often a fight between us would get close but then it would just go away again. If a fight was too dangerous for Ricky it didn’t happen, so every time I was in the way I got moved out of his path. Hatton hates me and he can’t stand the fact that I’ll beat him, if we ever get it on in the ring. That’s why he and his handlers have never allowed the fight to take place.”
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