Junior Witter
Boxing champion, Junior Witter, has been a World,
European, British and Commonwealth Light-
Welterweight champion. He studied Computer
Service Engineering at Bradford College in the 1990s.
Junior’s family came to Bradford from Jamaica
and was born and brought up in the city. He
began boxing aged 11 following the suggestion
of a friend. He found that it was a useful outlet
for his energies and it kept him out of trouble!
Although he had more than 100 wins as an
amateur, Junior was almost 23 before he had his
first professional fight.
Prior to this he was qualified as a computer service
engineer after 2 years at Bradford Technical
College. He then went to work for Jennings
Computer Engineering in Bradford, building,
servicing and carrying out repairs on computers
and printers. This was impossible to sustain with
his training at Ingle’s gym in Sheffield and so he
worked the early shift in various warehouse jobs
and as a barman in a social club before he turned
professional.
“I was interested in 2 subjects really – computers
and biology. I enjoyed my 2 year computer
course. It was good at the time and I met good
friends. I was really into it when I started working
in computers but I realised that what I really
wanted to do was boxing. I still mess about with
computers but they are a profession you must
keep on top of.”
Junior has won 36 of his 40 fights, 21 by
delivering a knockout punch. He has drawn only
2 bouts and faced only 2 defeats. No wonder he
is known as Junior ‘The Hitter’ Witter! He won
the British and Commonwealth titles in 2002;
the European title in 2004 and first won the WBC
title in 2006, defending it twice before suffering
an uncharacteristic defeat on points to American
Timothy Bradley in Nottingham on 10th May
2008.
“My promoter is working on a return fight with
Bradley. If this doesn’t happen I will fight my
way back in to contention. I prepared 100% for
the fight but unfortunately I got it wrong on the
night. I believe if I had hit my peak on the night
as I did against Harris the outcome would have
been different. It’s a hard and expensive lesson
to learn but it will make me a stronger fighter. I
resumed training in June and I want to fight the
first available date in September. My focus now is
getting back the world championship.”
Bradford College launched its Sports Academies
in May 2008 and starts recruiting students to its
Boxing Academy this September. We are delighted
that Junior will be one of the patrons and will be
the face of the Boxing Academy.
Photograph supplied by Junior Witter