Sport personality
Junior Witter

Profession
Boxer, Lt Welterweight

Date of Birth
10 Mar 1974

Personal best:
Hard Road to Glory by Johnny Nelson

“Even as I lay sobbing on the canvas, my brain was telling me this wasn't how it was supposed to be. This wasn’t the way winners reacted. I’d visualised the moment so many times in the build up to fighting Carl Thompson for the WBO world cruiserweight title but it had never looked like this”

(used by kind permission of John Blake Publishing Ltd)

Background:
Johnny Nelson was a boxer and the WBO Cruiserweight World Champion, a title he gained on 27 March 1999 by defeating Carl Thompson. He has also previously fought for the WBU & WBF Crusierweight title which he won but then later gave them up. His fight record is 45 wins (29 by knockout), 12 losses and two draws.

Junior Witter says:
"Reading Johnny's book was like reading my own boxing story and that has really helped get me through some not so good times. I can relate to a lot of what Johnny says especially since I was training here at the same gym at the time of the book. The 'ups' and 'downs' that Johnny describes in his book parallels my own life. He helped me see them for what they were in black and white which in turn helped motivate me to overcome the problems and come out stronger.

Johnny didn't always win and neither have I - but through reading his book, Johnny's words have inspired and motivated me to fight back and work hard to regain my title as World Champion."