Desert Storm Stuns Witter

Junior Witter failed to retain his world title against the previously unbeaten challenger Timothy Bradley.

Having provided an insightful pre-fight analysis, Witter had underestimated his opponent and looked like a deer trapped in the headlights of a speeding care during the fight, as he may been looking to far ahead to take Bradley seriously.

"I'm gutted, I can't believe it," he said. "I thought I'd done enough.

"I know I had the knock-down but I thought I worked hard enough in the rest of the fight to win comfortably.

"I don't think you saw the best of me tonight. Timothy Bradley came out and fought and took some good shots. He caught me with a hell of a shot.

"But I was just a bit sloppy. It was a perfect shot. He'd been trying it all night, I knew he was going for it. But I won rounds before it. I won rounds after that."

However it was Bradley who was able to carry out operation "Desert Storm" and in turn stun the Boxing world.

As with Bradley, preparation and hard work paid off for him. I was curious as to how Bradley would come out in front of his biggest audience to date and to see if Witter would intimidate him in the ring.He commented on Witter's real reason for fighting and whether his mind was in the right place

"The whole time he just kept talking about Hatton," said Bradley. "And if you have your mind set on something else you're not really ready for the big show that's ahead.

"He trained hard for me but his mind was on Ricky Hatton."

The judges scoring were 115-113 and 114-113 on two cards. Witter was ahead 115-112 on the third card.

Faced with the prospect of a rematch with Witter, Bradley was optimistic and understood what demands a champion can make.

"I will give Junior Witter a rematch if the money's right."

Witter being more upbeat form the defeat was quick to the defense of his abilities and silenced any critics who have told him to call it a day.

"I'm still going to carry on, no way am I retiring after that," said Witter, who had said he would fight until aged 40 before the fight. "There's a lot more in the tank.

"There are better nights for me to come and Junior Witter will be back as a world champion."

Reflecting back on Witter's style and motivation, he saw this as an easy defense and had lost sight of the task at hand. The preparation leaves a lot to be desired, as I had seen Witter in training since the Demetrius Hopkins debacle, to see Witter lose steam after six rounds may show that at his age he can no longer compete at the highest level.

WBC #1 rated super middleweight Carl Froch (23-0, 19 KO's) battered previously unbeaten late-replacement Albert Rybacki (15-1, 8 KO's), scoring a fourth round TKO. Froch is Joe Calzaghe's mandatory challenger, although Calzaghe is expected to relinquish the title without meeting Froch.