On the under card of the Bernard Hopkins-Howard Eastman fight
we will be treated to a high quality bout between Lovemore Ndou and Junior
Witter, two men who most of the top contenders at 140 pounds do not wish to
face.A lot of American fight fans may be familiar with Ndou who gave Sharmba
Mitchell and Miguel Cotto all they could handle in 2004, both bouts Lovemore
took on very short notice, about two weeks if I remember correctly. Lovemore
lost a very close decision for the interim IBF 140 pound world title with
Mitchell, a bout Sharmba should feel very lucky to have won. Ndou’s bout with
Cotto was not as close with the young Puerto Rican superstar in the making
winning the toughest bout of his career clearly over 12 rounds. Ndou has said he
has tried to secure rematches with both men and neither wants anything to do
with him again. Ndou thought he was to be in the ring opposite Floyd Mayweather
Jnr in January but the "Pretty One" chose a softer touch against Henry Brussells.
Ndou has also for some time campained for a bout against the undefeated Ricky
Hatton to no avail! It seems like an eternity that Lovemore Ndou has been
chasing a shot at Kostya Tszyu too, but understandably Tszyu is looking for
bigger fish to fry!
Junior Witter is probably best known for putting one of the ugliest efforts in a
world title bout outside of a John Ruiz title defence that I have ever seen. Zab
Judah would have found a pair of running shoes more useful than boxing gloves in
his first defence of his IBF 140 pound title in 2000. Witter made it a
competitive bout for the first 3 or 4 rounds of his only legitimate title shot
to date a few years ago, a bout Witter too took on short notice. The very
unappealing performance has haunted Witter ever since as nobody with a decent
ranking in the 140 pound division wants to face him as anyone who faces him in
the ring will not look good in doing so as Witter is one of these switch hitting
southpaws who is very difficult hit and a danger to any prospective opponent. I
must admit I would prefer to go out of my way not to watch Witter fight when I
reflect on his bout with Judah even though I am aware that Junior has knocked
out 15 opponents since that bout. Like Ndou, Witter has been looking for a big
money bout with Ricky Hatton for the last few years. I don't think Hatton is
scared of Witter as Ricky demanded the ight be made but Frank Warren steered him
in a another direction. I do believe that Frank Warren was afraid of Witter
putting on another damaging performance on Showtime like he did against Judah.
Junior Witter was supposed to fight Gianluca Branco in a WBC elimination bout on
the under card of Hopkins-Eastman. Branco has pulled out and now Witter is to
face Ndou in what could end up being a world title eliminator where the winner
could potentially face Arturo Gatti in the near future, especially when we
consider Floyd Mayweather Jnr may not be available to face Gatti in June due to
legal problems outside the ring. So Witter-Ndou could well be a very important
bout!
How will this fight pan out? Well I’m pretty sure it will go the full distance
as both men are not particularly hard punchers and both seem to be in possession
of very solid chins. As for a result well you could toss a coin on this one but
perhaps the fact Ndou has faced higher quality opposition recently may work in
his favour. The one thing I do know is that Arturo Gatti, his promoters and HBO
would not be exactly drooling with anticipation on fighting the victor as both
Ndou & Witter would be a very difficult fight for Arturo Gatti if the WBC
decides Gatti must meet the highest available contender for a mandatory defence
of his 140 pound title should Floyd Mayweather Jnr be unavailable.
