What ever happened to Winky Wright?

[Manju]

WW just had no where to go at the end. He beat the Mosely who had just beaten ODLH and sent Trinidad into premature retirement. Both formidable achievements.

But after that, only Jermain Taylor...who was in his redhot prime....gave him a big fight. After Taylor escaped with a draw every elite figured out that they better avoid WW. He wasn't a big payday and he was just impossible to dominate. And he made everyone look bad.

To be fair, he didn't dominate others, unlike other defensive specialists like PBF or Sweet Pea. So he was more of a quirky survivor than genius. But still, no one ever really figured him out. He was so desperate to fight that he went up to 170 for Bernard Hopkins.

I always respected Paul Williams for taking him on. At the time, Williams had a lot to lose. He was being touted by the boxing press as the most dangerous fighter out there, and ironically folks were avoiding him. He was displaying some awesome power and winning in spectacular fashion. WW was therefore a dangerous fight, especially since Williams had already been outboxed once in his career.

Williams didn't really figure WW out either. He simply outworked him and thats fair enough. He still never got enough credit for that, as he was really the only fighter to convincingly beat WW. But then again, WW never got much credit either.