Witter crushes Harris in seven!

In Doncaster, England this past weekend, WBC Super Lightweight Champion Junior Witter successfully made the 2nd defense of his title with a crushing 7th round knockout of Former Champion Vivian Harris.

In the preview post, I noted that Harris' chin has failed him before in the past; it failed him again against a man who is not known for his punching power. Nonetheless, Witter got the job done emphatically and remains a player in the 140lb weight division. His stock probably goes up a bit after his victory over Harris, which is probably the biggest victory of his career to date.

Harris, on the other hand, sees his stock go down as one must question where the Brooklyn native goes from here. In an interview at Boxingtalk, conducted with Harris by Greg Leon, Harris insinuated that Witter was injected with something and that was the reason for the greater than expected punching power from Witter.

The fact of the matter remains that it was a world championship fight Vivian. Coming off a three fight winning streak, this was your chance to redeem yourself after your title-losing debacle against Carlos Maussa in 2005 and regain a title to gain back a foothold in your weight class. Did you not agree to take the fight in England? You state that you realize what happens when you go to England for a fight. Fighters get hurt. The point of the matter is, anybody can get hurt in any place at any time when they don't block the punches of their opponents.

More importantly, you signed a contract to face this man in his home country of England, and you are a former World Champion much less a world class fighter. A veteran of your caliber should've been ready to rise to the occasion. These days, fighters seem to be making every excuse in the book for their defeats. Once in a blue moon, you see a controversial situation like the Torres vs Holt fight that happened in Columbia. Other fighters, who just happen to lose fights, begin to make excuses for their own defeats.

This was not a case of the crowd interfering with your performance by chucking loaded beer cans at your head, throwing ice into the ring, or a referee stopping a fight too soon while you're still on your feet. No, this was not Torres vs Holt by any means. You got hit with a shot, you went down, you didn't beat the count, and the referee stopped the fight for your safety. Done deal!

Go back to the drawing board, Vivian. When you don't block your opponent's punches, and they hit you and you go down without beating the count, you have nobody to blame but yourself. You got knocked out.