By James Slater: Tonight at The Alexandra Palace, London, WBC light-welterweight champion Junior Witter, making his first world title defence, had everything his own way against Mexican challenger Arturo Morua.
Witter won every single round on this reporter's card - and surely all three of the judges' -before finally getting the stoppage he was clearly looking for, in the ninth round. The fight was a dull and frustrating one to watch leading up to the ending, however, with near to no apparent game-plan visible from the twenty-eight year old challenger. Unfortunately, once again as a result, a boring boxing match featuring the undoubtedly talented Witter was witnessed. On this occasion, however, the blame did not lie at the thirty-two year old switch-hitter's feet. Junior tried his best to make an entertaining fight of it, Arturo simply didn't want to know.
The first round was a stand-off, with basically nothing more than a few decent looking jabs thrown by both men. The start was certainly one that could be referred to as cautious. I scored the session for the champion though, 10-9.
In the second, Witter was clearly the aggressor, coming forward and looking for his man. Morua, on the other hand was looking to counter - tactics one would usually associate with Witter, of course. Still, apart from one sharp looking left hand the Mexican scored nothing of note. Witter also landed a decent left, by way of a response, and he landed another just before the round's end - another one in his column.
In the third round, Junior opened up on Arturo straight away and had his challenger in a touch of difficulty on the ropes. Witter was looking to connect with his left hand to the head once more, as he was definitely trying to be more aggressive than he has been in the past. Morua looked somewhat slow, and Witter won his third round in a row.
Through rounds four through eight the pattern- of a more than dull encounter, with little action, especially from Morua - continued. Surprisingly though, there was no booing to be heard from the crowd. Junior's ability at adopting alternate stances - of either southpaw or orthodox - remained a frustration for the Mexican, who did very little work himself. A small nick appeared above the challenger's left eye at the end of round four also. In the fifth, Witter tried to unload, throwing some eye catching combinations. Some punches landed, while others missed. There were also more sharp jabs from the champion - from both stances.
By the sixth, I had it a shut-out for Witter, as Morua had shown virtually nothing. Junior continued to come forward, at times appearing desperate to make an exciting fight of it. He failed, however, as Morua remained in his shell. The challenger touched down at the start of the seventh, as he missed with a wild left hand. No count was given by American referee Tim Adams though, and the bout continued in its stagnant fashion. Fine looking pot shots from Junior continued to land for him, but little else. By round eight he had yet to come close to losing a session.
And then finally, in the ninth, the defending WBC champion broke through and landed some real hurt. He sprang to life as he had done in the fifth and unloaded with an array of crisp punches. A left uppercut to the jaw at the start of the round landed for Junior and then he blazed away with both fists. Morua found himself pinned in a corner and the ref, seeing that only these kept him upright, administered a count. Then, once the action was permitted to carry on, Witter finished the job with more shots. Adams dived in - as much due to the Mexican's failure to throw anything back, as his being really badly hurt - and the stoppage win was Witter's.
A successful first defence of his recently acquired WBC title is now Witter's, but as much as he looked hard to beat while getting it, he also featured in yet another fight that was hard to watch. Though, as I've said, it wasn't his fault this time, such a consolation will mean little for a fighter who wants to get it on with rival 140 pound fighter Ricky Hatton. Tonight's fight did little to nothing with regards to making Witter a more marketable fighter. As talented as he is such negative comments may seem unfair, the fact remains, however, that boxing is supposed to be entertaining. Unfortunately, Witter-Morua, like many other of Junior's fights, was anything but entertaining.
Witter improved to 35-1-2 (19KO) while Morua dropped to 24-8-1 (13KO)
|
Subscribe to feed
