Junior Witter has ridden more punches outside the ring than in it.

The latest blow saw a potential money-spinning showdown with Amir Khan snatched away within days of the offer being made.

Now you see it, now you don’t. Khan, having sounded out Witter, is fighting original target Paul McCloskey after all.

Witter still has his own comeback to focus on when he steps up to welterweight for the first time to face Victor Lupo in Canada a week on Saturday.

Whatever happened about Khan, February 19 was the only date that his preparations have been fixed on.

But it’s typical of the way Witter’s career has panned out. For Bradford’s only boxing world champion, opportunities have never come easy.

“People have been writing me off since I turned pro,” he said. “I remember it started when I was looking round the gyms in Bradford to see what suited me.

“I tried a few out but thought ‘these aren’t for me’. So I ended up with Brendan (Ingle) in Sheffield.

“Straight away I had people telling me that I’d do nothing. I hadn’t got the stamina, the style or the power.

“People said I wouldn’t even get a shot at the British title, let alone win it.

“When I became the WBC world champion, the only British light-welterweight to achieve that, I shut them up.

“Now they are starting all over again – and I’ll shut them up again.

“I’m still hungry; in fact I’m starving. I’ve got things to prove and I love proving people wrong.”

Witter turns 37 next month and has not stepped in a ring for a year and a half since retiring with a broken hand in the eighth round against Devon Alexander.

The sceptics also point to a cruciate knee injury since, which stopped him doing any form of training for six months.

Witter, a fitness freak, admitted it killed him not to be allowed near the gym for so long.

“I couldn’t do anything and then I had to learn how to run again and get myself fit. It was a very frustrating time before I could get back in the old routine.

“But I’m surprised it has taken so long to get another fight. I thought more people would be queuing up to take me on.

“I expected them to be thinking ‘he’s getting old, he didn’t finish his last 12-rounder, he’s past it now’. But they still haven’t been willing to try it.

“That shows I’m still respected and still feared. I’ve been there and only the best of the best have beaten me at their peak.”

The three blemishes on his 42-fight record have all been in world-title fights – Zab Judah, when he chanced his arm in 2000, and more recently, Tim Bradley and Alexander.

Bradley, who took his green belt after a 13-month reign, remains an itch Witter wants to scratch.

His head was not in the right place at the time, having found out just days before that his father had cancer.

Witter added: “I would love to get my rematch with Bradley. I’m not saying I go round all day thinking about it but it’s something I want to settle.

“I know where I was (mentally) and I only got beaten by one point. But if I don’t win this fight (against Lupo) then that won’t happen.

“Right now I’m just concentrating on facing a dangerous opponent, and I’ll be ready.

“I’ve been around for a few years and I’ve seen them come and go. But I’m still here.”