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| When Felix “Tito’ Trinidad climbs through the ropes on May 14 at the MGM Grand, it will be his first proper outing for the best part of four years. He got in a few rounds against Hassine Cherifi, but realistically, Cherifi was never going to offer much resistance. Ricardo Mayorga on the other hand was going to be a real test, particularly with Trinidad |  |
returning after a twenty-seven month layoff; many people thought it was going to be a very tough night’s work for the Puerto Rican hero, how wrong they were. Mayorga, moving up two weight classes to take the job is a tough one-dimensional slugger made to order, and Trinidad obliged, pounding him to defeat in eight entertaining rounds. Things will be entirely different come the fourteenth when Trinidad takes on light middleweight champion Ronald “Winky’ Wright. Wright is the antithesis of Mayorga, a well-schooled, well-drilled slick southpaw with a very tight defence and an accurate if not devastating punch.
In his last two appearances (beating Shane Mosley twice), Wright has been the bigger man, but in this fight, he is the one stepping up. Give or take a couple of pounds, Wright has been at 154-pounds his entire career, but he will tell you that 154 has been a struggle and he will be a much stronger fighter at 160. Nevertheless, Wright is the one stepping into Trinidad’s world at 160-pounds, and although there will be nothing between them come fight night, it is Trinidad who will be the bigger man having fought at middleweight for the past four years; he is the settled 160-pound fighter.
Wright feels that he never got the fights, or the recognition his talent and hard work deserved. Even after besting Shane Mosley in back to back decisions, Wright is not the superstar he should be. Whilst fighting under the radar of American audiences for years, Wright was showcasing his skills in South Africa and in many parts of Europe (three of those on British soil). He was a pleasure to watch as he dispensed one by one with Ensley Bingham, Steve Foster and Adrian Dodson in a combined twenty-four rounds; the British contingent picked up half a dozen of those rounds if they were lucky. Whilst Bingham and Foster were no world-beaters, big things were expected of Dodson by many, but in truth, he was hopelessly outclassed and pulled out after a six-round hammering.
The edge in power will be with Trinidad, I don’t think there will be any disputing that, but one train of thought is that Wright’s tight defence will keep him out of harms way whilst he piles on the points and accumulative damage with well-placed, solid hits. Wright’s southpaw stance has been dismissed in some quarters as Trinidad has dealt with southpaws handily in the past, but unlike Whitaker, Camacho and Pineda, Wright is not past his best, he isn’t too small, nor is he limited, and in short, he will be an entirely different proposition.
Plenty will look to the common foe between Trinidad and Wright, Fernando Vargas as a source of reference and whilst it’s there in black and white, make no mistake that “Winky’ Wright is an entirely different fighter to the one beaten by Vargas (if you think he lost at all). In the same way that the Bernard Hopkins beaten by Roy Jones isn’t the ring general that he is today.
This one shapes up to be a magnificent contest: the classic boxer versus the puncher. Trinidad (Hopkins fight aside) is a great late fighter, whilst Wright starts strongly but fades somewhat late on. The question can be asked about each man’s chin, as Wright was tagged and hurt by Mosley, although there will be no dropping of hands in this one. Also, Trinidad has been on the floor on numerous occasions against welterweights, although his chin has looked sturdier as he moved through the weights. If Wright can nullify most of the incoming, then he has a chance. He needs to be mobile, he needs to score quickly and early and remind “Tito’ what happened the last time he took on a well-schooled fighter his own size, and then survive what will surely be a late-rounds onslaught.
I’m going to pick Wright to win this one by decision. I have never backed against him before and I’m not going to start now. Whilst that isn’t the soundest basis to make a prediction, the fact that Wright is the active fighter here and the one I think possesses the better skills and more to prove is justification enough. This fight is what Wright has been waiting a long time for; to pull it off he will have to produce a near flawless performance, but if there’s a type of fighter that can do that, it’s “Winky’ Wright.
Matt Cotterell can be reached at mattcotterell@blueyonder.co.uk
