Junior Witter lost his WBC light-welterweight belt to American Jonathan Bradley after a closely fought 12 rounds in Nottingham.

Mandatory challenger Bradley took a split decision after flooring Witter in the sixth round and cutting the 34-year-old champion above his left eye in the 11th.

Witter edged the opening rounds but the nimble Bradley worked his way into the fight and unleashed a scything right hand to the side of Witter's head near the end of the sixth.

Unbeaten Bradley was frustrated by the sound of the bell as he moved into finish the fight and Witter then recovered well to chip away at the compact Californian.

Bradley, 24, maintained a punishing work rate in the latter rounds to fend off a Witter comeback and had his opponent in trouble again in the 10th and 11th rounds with solid rights.

One judge surprisingly had Witter winning by three rounds while the others gave the fight to Bradley by margins of 115-13 and 114-113. Bradley takes his record to 22-0.

"I'm gutted," Witter told ITV after the fight. "I thought I'd done enough to win.

"You didn't see the best of me tonight. You have to take your hat off to Jonathan Bradley, he caught me with one hell of a shot.

"It was my fault. I was sloppy and it was a perfect shot. He'd been trying it all night I knew he was going for it.

"But I thought I'd won rounds before that and I won rounds after that."

He added: "I'm still going to carry on fighting. There will be better nights from Junior Witter to come - as a world champion."

Eurosport