Boxing: Witter's chance to regain lost time against Battaglia

So far this year has been a total disaster for planned fights, but one of the best of the dozen or so postponed from earlier this year should finally take place at the Nottingham Arena tonight.

So far this year has been a total disaster for planned fights, but one of the best of the dozen or so postponed from earlier this year should finally take place at the Nottingham Arena tonight.

Two months ago, Bradford's Junior Witter was less than 28 hours away from meeting Salvatore Battaglia, of Italy, for the vacant European light-welterweight title when the Italian suffered stomach cramps and withdrew. This put back Witter's prospects of finally climbing out from under the vast shadow cast by Manchester's Ricky Hatton. But if Witter wins, he will receive a decent world ranking.

Witter against Hatton is the type of domestic fight that now appears rarely to be an option in the business in Britain because of the proliferation of titles, careful match-making and rival promoters who will simply never see eye to eye.

The original main attraction on tonight's bill was to have featured the local fighter Carl Froch in a British and Commonwealth super-middleweight contest against Liverpool's Tony Dodson. Froch will now defend his Commonwealth title against Canada's Mark Woolnaugh.