Witter pondering move up to welterweight

Sheffield Star Les Payne4th August, 2009

JUNIOR Witter may decide to move up to welterweight as he reflects on where his career heads next.

He failed to regain the WBC light welterweight title at the weekend and his Sheffield trainer Dominic Ingle says that as the 35-year-old considers his situation, a move to welterweight may be "an obvious solution".

He said: "A win last November over Victor Castro in that division saw him show the speed and power he failed to produce when losing his crown to Tim Bradley and now against Devon Alexander.

"It may be shifting the last few pounds are taking its toll on Junior and this was apparent in his last two title fights. I will be speaking to his promoter Mick Hennessy to see what options Junior has at Welterweight although, right now, Junior needs to take a break and give his body time to heal."

Ingle revealed that the left elbow, which was to force his retirement after round 8, had received physiotherapy for several weeks before the fight.

"Derry Suter, from the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, did a great job getting him through the harsh training regime. Unfortunately, in the second round, Junior over-extended his left jab and exacerbated the underlying problem.

"It was obvious early on that the elbow was a becoming a big problem as Junior boxed mainly from a southpaw stance leading with his right hand.

"It was always going to be a fight of Alexander's speed against Witter's power and I realised Junior wasn't able to make the power shots count and holding Alexander off and turning the fight around with one hand was too much of a ask, so I decided to pull him out."

Witter said: "I trained hard for the fight and although I picked up several injuries during training I was confident I could beat Alexander but it wasn't to be."

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