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On the evening of May 14, in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada, in front of 14,000 screaming fans, you had the classic boxing match-up: the relentless puncher in Felix “Tito” Trinidad, and the textbook boxer in Ronald “Winky” Wright. Thought by many to be facing a sure test and maybe even a loss added to his record, “The Winkster” once again proved all the naysayers absolutely, positively and unanimously WRONG! He entered the ring as calm and as confident as a fighter could be, absorbing all the ecstatic energy that the MGM Grand crowd had to offer him. He showed no signs of worry, even though reports circulated that he had to receive antibiotics due to an infection, caused by an ingrown hair, which turned into a boil, which then needed removing from his neck. But all the pre-fight drama aside, Wright did not let anything deter him from the matter at hand, which was to stop Tito.
After the singing of the national anthems for both countries, ring announcer Michael Buffer spoke those famous spine tingling words, “Let’s Get Ready to Rumbllllleeeeee!” Tito came in confident and looking cool with his spiky new hair, and when both fighters came to the center of the ring for their instructions, and to touch gloves, Tito made sure that Winky felt the power that he is so known for, by pounding Wright on the gloves, to serve as a reminder what of Wright was facing.
Now here is where the plot thickens. We all know that a boxer is just that, a boxer and if he has a jab like Winky, and you are facing him, how do you neutralize it? Do you stick to your game as a puncher and get on the inside, which will then allow you to work the body and the head? Or do you simply counter punch and hope something opens up for you that way?
If there is a formula for stopping a boxer with an accurate and precise jab as Winky’s is, not to mention power in both hands, then somebody forgot to give the ingredients to Felix Trinidad. He was out-boxed and out-jabbed for, in my opinion, twelve full rounds, but the scorecards gave him the last round. I guess Trinidad received such charity due to his wild and desperate swinging, trying to rally a devastating knockout, due to the fact that, he had lost every round up to that point. So late in the fight, a knockout was exactly what he needed to win.
Wright fought the perfect fight for this fight. He is a boxer and he boxed all the way to a unanimous victory. He did not let his opponent get him out of his game, he stayed focused on the plan, his defense was A+, he did not stay stationary, allowing Trinidad to hit him, and he listened to his corner the whole way through; he fought the perfect fight. So what did Tito do wrong? He could not neutralize that jab! It is hard to hit at something when it is not there, and with a pawing right jab in your neck the whole way through, it is almost impossible. Winky stated pre-fight, “That is exactly the plan, not to allow Trinidad to hit me,” thus making it impossible to neutralize that jab. Winky’s showing on Saturday night was a classic textbook performance of how a boxer beats a puncher to the punch.
Katrina Walters can be reached at boxingkatrina@aol.com
