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Public Enemy · Joined: 17 Sep 2006 Posts: 117 Location: London

From BBC Sport

Puzzled how one judge gave it 115-113 to Witter

Junior Witter lost his WBC light-welterweight belt to American Timothy Bradley on Saturday, blowing his hopes of securing a fight with Ricky Hatton.

Bradley won a split decision 112-115, 115-113 and 114-113 in Nottingham.

He landed an excellent right hand to knock down Britain's Witter in round six in the key moment of the bout.

Witter failed to impose himself as he suffered a second career loss, but it was still an impressive win for Bradley, a huge underdog pre-fight.

After the fight, Sheffield based Witter insisted that, although it was not his best performance, he felt he had done enough to win.

"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."

Witter's dream of a high-profile contest against Hatton has now all but collapsed after Bradley's first win in Britain.

And the American said that Witter's obsession with fighting Hatton had distracted the champion.

"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.