Trinidad Outclassed.

Ronald “Winky” Wright put on a near flawless performance to dispatch Felix “Tito” Trinidad in fine style in front of an awestruck crowd at the MGM Grand. Round after round followed the same pattern as Winky slammed the jab and left cross into Tito’s face with monotonous ease, Winky was having fun in there and Tito was utterly clueless. Every attack Tito mounted was nullified on the arms and gloves of Wright’s watertight defence; it seemed that the only thing to get through Wright’s defence was his own beaming smile which must have sickened Trinidad. Opinions at the weigh-in suggested that Winky looked the true middleweight and that proved to be the case as he dominated the centre of the ring and pushed Trinidad back at will, steadying him with the jab and causing his legs to momentarily dip on a couple of occasions.

If he saw fit Wright could well have forced the stoppage, but seemed to be content to dish out the punishment, sticking to his pre-fight prediction that he wouldn’t beat him so bad as to rule out a rematch, a remark no doubt made off the cuff but it couldn’t have been more apt. Whether a rematch is necessary remains to be seen, such was Wright’s dominance, it’s difficult to see what Tito could do differently, whereas you could envisage Wright turning up the heat and dispensing with the final bell. The punchstat numbers make horrible reading for Trinidad and his followers: Tito landed fifty-eight punches to Wrights 262. The scorecards don’t make for pleasant viewing either: 119-108 (twice) and 120-107 reflect what a one sided contest this was.

Matt Cotterell can be reached at mattcotterell@blueyonder.co.uk