Junior Witter refused to answer the bell for the ninth round as he lost a clash for the vacant WBC light-welterweight title with Devon Alexander.
Bradford hitter fails to answer bell for ninth round
Junior Witter refused to answer the bell for the ninth round as he lost a clash for the vacant WBC light-welterweight title with Devon Alexander.
The Bradford switch-hitter, who had been hoping to regain the belt he lost to Timothy Bradley last year, suffered an arm injury early in the fight and felt he could not go on after the eighth.
"My elbow went in round four and basically I couldn't keep him off with my left hand," Witter told Showtime Television.
"I battled through for a few rounds but the pressure kept coming on and it was like 'I can't keep doing it'.
"I kept switching, which was working to an extent but I wasn't able to box the way I wanted to. I didn't feel good. I didn't feel good at all and we just decided it was time to let this one go.
"It was a mutual agreement (with his corner). As much as I wanted to do it, I just wasn't able to do it.
"It's not that I wanted to quit, I wanted to win, I knew it was a close fight, there wasn't much in it, he caught me with some good shots, I caught him with some good shots and I still had a chance to win the fight - but I just wasn't here on the night."
Alexander, now unbeaten in 19 fights, looked the hungrier of the pair from the outset as Witter clinched and grabbed and failed to throw any combinations, the unorthodox Brit merely throwing wild shots from long range.
The American landed the cleaner blows and opened up a cut over Witter's right eye in the third round, and continued to pressure the 35-year-old who had little in the way of counter-attack.
Bradley retains
Although Alexander was clearly on top in the eighth, it was still a surprise when Witter walked across the ring during the break to congratulate his opponent after showing no sign during the fight of the injury he was later to blame on his performance.
Bradley, who had vacated the WBC belt to take on Nate Campbell for a more lucrative defence of his WBO title on the same card, came away successful following another strange end when the fight was stopped in the third round due to a cut.
Following an accidental clash of heads, Campbell signalled to the referee what had happened before Bradley reigned in a flurry of punches before the bell.
When the challenger returned to his corner the ringside physician had little choice but to call the fight off, but the decision to give Bradley the win by TKO rather than call a 'no-contest' caused controversy, with a re-match now on the cards.
