By Richard Rodriguez: WBC light welterweight boxing champion Junior Witter (35-1, 20 KOs) will be defending his title tonight against former WBA light welterweight champion Vivian Harris (28-2-1, 18 KOs) at the Doncaster Dome in Yorkshire. On paper, this would seem like an easy win for the thirty-three year old Witter, however, I expect this to be a blow-out win for Harris which will likely end in an early knockout victory for the American..
Harris, 29, is both younger and the more talented fighter, with skills that closely match Zab Judah, who happened to give Witter his only career loss in June 2000. Like Judah, Harris is fast with both hands and can punch or box depending on the situation.
This is the 2nd defense for Witter, 33, who won the WBC light welterweight title last year in September 2006, with a unanimous decision victory over DeMarcus Corley. Witter is mostly known for his safety-first style of fighting, relying on his jab mostly and taking few chances against his opponents. Against the mostly overmatched European talent that Witter has fought during his career, he has been quite effective, but that’s where the problem lies – his soft competition against European fighters.
By defending against Harris, a fighter that has fought tough fighters for most of his career, Witter will be taking a huge leap up in competition, and it will likely be too much for him to deal with.
In reality, I see only three actual decent fighters on Witter’s entire record – Zab Judah, DeMarcus Corley and Lovemore N’dou – with the rest being fighters that I don’t feel are near top level in skills, especially in comparison to Harris’s impressive record of named fighters. This in itself is the problem for Witter, because he’s been unchallenged during much of his career except for those few cases where he was soundly beaten by Judah, and barely beat N’dou. Witter’s record just doesn’t cut the mustard, does it?
For his part, Harris has had mental lapses, losing fights to Colombian Carlos Maussa by 7th round KO in June 2005, and a 10-round unanimous decision to the tough Ray Oliveria in February 2000. However, in each case, Harris has come back from defeat with impressive wins over Ivan Robinson, Golden Johnson, Diosbelys Hurtado, Oktay Urkal (twice), and more recently with a string of victories over Marteze Logan, Steve Johnston and Juan Lazcano. As you can see, Harris has fought the much superior competition in his career compared to the soft opposition that Witter has feasted on.
Look for Harris to come out strong, taking charge immediately with his powerful left hook-right hand combination. Witter will probably play it safe, and try to peck away with his jab on the outside, hoping to win by attrition. However, Harris will quickly come at him and punish him with power shots and drive him to the ropes where he will pound him into submission. I see it ending quickly with Harris stunning Witter with a left hook and then finishing him off with a right hand. Like in his battle with Hurtado, I see Harris winning by sudden, brutal knockout.
Prediction: Harris by 4th round KO