For much of his 19-year career, Winky Wright was the fighter hardly anybody wanted to face. He held a junior middleweight title in the early part of this decade, but generally speaking, he was considered by the top boxers as too slick and not established enough to justify the risk of fighting him.
On April 11, Wright will face the most-avoided fighter of the latter half of this decade – Paul Williams. Though hardly anybody wants to meet Williams these days, Wright is the one who wants to take on the challenge. He knows how it feels to be avoided.
“You can’t get the fight because nobody wants to fight you,” Wright said on a recent teleconference. “It ain’t because you ain’t good enough. It’s just they don’t want to fight you. So, I know how Paul feels about being avoided. And like I said, you’ve got two fighters with big (hearts) that’s going to fight each other.”
Wright vs. Bernard Hopkins
The last time Wright (51-4, 25 KO) stepped into the ring, he was out-boxed by legendary middleweight Bernard Hopkins and beaten by unanimous decision. That was nearly two years ago.
But Wright also told reporters he’ll feel good despite the long layoff when he meets Williams on April 11 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. While he conceded it’s been tough to clean off the ring rust that has built since his defeat to Hopkins, he and trainer Dan Birmingham have endured an extra long training camp to sharpen his game.
Although Wright is 37 years old, he’s stockpiled a pretty impressive resume: he’s beaten Shane Mosley twice, Felix Trinidad once and drew with Jermaine Taylor.
Williams' Height and Reach
The big reason opponents avoid Williams (36-1, 27 KO), who gave up a welterweight trinket to move up in weight, is because of his 6-foot-1 frame and his long reach. With the exception of a loss to Carlos Quintana, who then was knocked out by Williams in the first round of their rematch, Williams has been dominant at welterweight, beating Antonio Margarito in a unanimous decision.
But he can’t get any fights either. That’s why he’s facing Wright at middleweight – 13 pounds heavier than the welterweight limit.
“Well, it’s always frustrating when you can’t get a fight,” Williams said on a conference call. “Especially when you see the best fighters out there that are around your weight class avoiding you like the plague. They’re avoiding you by any means necessary.”
Wright’s Age and Weight
Williams has the advantage of being younger than Wright – the former is 27 years old – and with his non-stop aggression in which throwing more than 100 punches a round is commonplace, Wright could face a tough night. Considering also that Wright, always known as a defensive stalwart, has been easier to hit in his most recent fights, Williams will look to take advantage of reflexes that might have slowed.
Also, it hasn’t been unusual for Wright to pack on the pounds in between fights. Even though his long layoff following the Hopkins bout wasn’t by choice, he gained more than 30 pounds in his off time. That likely won’t be easy to take off in training camp.
But consider this as well: the latest trend in boxing has been for the cagey veteran fighter to upset – and dominate – the younger, hungry fighter. Take, for instance, Hopkins’ easy win against Kelly Pavlik and Shane Mosley’s recent destruction of Margarito.
“He’s a hungry young fighter that thinks the world is scared of him,” Wright told BoxingScene.com. “I’m going to give him some things to think about in the ring, and we’re going to have to adjust and just dominate the fight. I’m going to win, definitely.”
