Witter was put down by a Bradley right in round six

Britain's Junior Witter lost his WBC light-welterweight belt to American Timothy Bradley, blowing his hopes of securing a fight with Ricky Hatton.

Bradley won a split decision 112-115, 115-113 and 114-113 in Nottingham.

He landed an excellent right hand to knock down Britain's Witter in round six in the key moment of the bout.

Witter failed to impose himself as he suffered a second career loss, but it was still an impressive win for Bradley, a huge underdog pre-fight.

After the fight, Witter insisted that, although it was not his best performance, he felt he had done enough to win.

"I'm gutted, I can't believe it," he said. "I thought I'd done enough.

"I know I had the knock-down but I thought I worked hard enough in the rest of the fight to win comfortably.

I'm still going to carry on, no way am I retiring after that Junior Witter

"But I was just a bit sloppy. It was a perfect shot. He'd been trying it all night, I knew he was going for it. But I won rounds before it. I won rounds after that."

Witter's dream of a high-profile contest against Hatton has now all but collapsed after Bradley's first win in Britain.

And the American said that Witter's obsession with fighting Hatton had distracted the champion.

"The whole time he just kept talking about Hatton," said Bradley. "And if you have your mind set on something else you're not really ready for the big show that's ahead.

"He trained hard for me but his mind was on Ricky Hatton."

As for his own prospects of facing Hatton, or even a rematch with Witter, Bradley said: "I love (Hatton's) style, he's a great champion. I'll let my promoters handle all of that.

"I will give Junior Witter a rematch if the money's right."

Veteran Witter found the Californian a tough proposition in the early rounds, with the Bradford-born fighter unable to deliver enough clean blows from his counter-attacking stance.

Bradley showed why he was unbeaten in 21 previous bouts in what was his first fight outside California, with a bustling, aggressive style.

Witter showed character to recover from the knock-down in the sixth, however, to take the seventh and eighth with a series of well-aimed shots.

606: DEBATE Listless at times and never able to get a handle on a hungry, energetic challenger 10 years his junior, Witter, to put it bluntly, blew it BBC Sport's Ben Dirs

Leaking blood from the corner of his left eye, Witter came out for the final round tentatively and found Bradley the aggressor once more, landing more clean blows and doing enough to secure the narrow verdict.

"I'm still going to carry on, no way am I retiring after that," said Witter, who had said he would fight until aged 40 before the fight. "There's a lot more in the tank.

"There are better nights for me to come and Junior Witter will be back as a world champion."