By Rick Reeno
This Saturday night on pay per view, the junior middleweight king Winky Wright (48-3, 25 KOs) moves up to the middleweight division to take on the pride of Puerto Rico, Felix "Tito" Trinidad (42-1, 35 KOs). Both fighters are at the top of their game and only one man will walk away the winner. Winky Wright is one of the best boxers in the game and Felix Trinidad is one of the most dangerous punchers in the game, the contrasting styles make this a very exciting matchup of world class fighters. We have two fighters that always want big fights and never turn away from a challenge, a loss for either fighter can be devastating for their career. Trinidad and Wright are going to have to put on some show in order to even come close to the excitement of last week's bout between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo.
The staff of BoxingScene.com comes together to give their picks for the upcoming Trinidad-Wright superfight.
Jim Amato - Winky Wright is a smart guy. I look for him to try and use many of Bernard Hopkins tricks when he faces Felix "Tito " Trinidad. Hopkins shut down Trinidad when they battled a few years back. Winky has a style that could be very troublesome to Felix. What Winky does not have is a big punch. Hopkins is no Tommy Hearns in the power department but he hit hard enough to get Tito's attention. This is what Winky MUST do. Somehow he has to get a big punch early and rattle Tito. Get his attention right away. If he fails to this and he does not get Tito's respect, I'm afraid Trinidad will just bomb away. I'll have go with Tito by a late round TKO.
Mike Indri - Again, I'll go with the boxer over the puncher. "Winky" Wright is one of the finest, pure-boxers today and should be on everyone's "pound for pound best" list. Trinidad is an awesome fighter, great puncher, and a deadly finisher when he hurts his opponent. I don't think Wright will give Trinidad too many opportunities to display all his powers. Winky won't fight the perfect fight for Tito - as did Mayorga. Wright will use all his skills to gain advantage, frustrate Tito and eventually control this fight - which will not be the fight of the year-type fight that most fight fans are anticipating. Ronald "Winky" Wright unanimous decision win over Felix "Tito" Trinidad.
Pedro Fernandez - Going with the wisdom and acumen of Don King. He thinks Tito Trinidad beats Winky Wright, or he would not have made the match.
Sammy Rozenberg - Normally I would pick Trinidad to win, but I dont think Tito has gone enough quailty rounds in order to beat a slick southpaw like Winky Wright. Wright will get shaken up a few times but will get the decision.
Tom Donelson - From the guy who so far has been striking out in the big fights recently, I will once again try to predict the winner of a big fight. Wright is a good boxer and can prove to be elusive. Trinidad, on the other hand, chases his opponent down before putting them away. Trinidad is vulnerable to slick boxers. When Hopkins beat Trinidad, he boxed and moved side to side. Hopkins had the pop to make Trinidad respect him and then finish the job at the end.
Wright has the boxing skills but he is not a fighter who moves that much but instead depends upon his head movement and hands to block incoming punches. He is also an awkward fighter and he will spend quite a bit of time in front of Trinidad.
Trinidad's strength is his punching power so the key to the fight is whether Wright can take Trinidad punches and make Trinidad respect him. Hopkins had the power in his punch to make Trinidad respect him. Can Wright to the same? Wright is a slick boxer but is he slick enough to avoid enough of Trinidad's bomb?
I like Trinidad in this one by a decision or late round stoppage.
Dr. Peter Edwards - Trinidad by a knockout in 6 rounds. If you dont have any pop in your punches, Tito will take you apart. Wright will not get Trinidad's respect and will get picked apart by power pucnhes until he crumbles.
Robert Padilla - Winky Wright has very good defense but no real KO power with the big boys of boxing. He did well against Mosley but Mosley is no Felix Trinidad. Trinidad at this time is the King of the comebacks and I pick him by decision vs. Wright. After all, Winky does get hit even with his slick defense.
Rusty Rubin - For the first half of the fight Winky will be playing hit and run with Tito chasing a bit...Wright should win most of the early rounds...The questions then are with Tito an easier (more stationary target), can Wright score enough of the later rounds to win, and can Tito catch him, as Wright is no longer as young and spry as he once was...Winky has surprising power but doesn't show it much...My gut tells me that Tito will catch up to Wright and score a late KO...Trinidad KO 10
James Blears - This'll be a catch me if you can, swings and round abouts bout. Felix has firepower and he'll be talking the lead in this waltz, but he can be wobbled and his career shows he's gone down a few times. If Winky is smart, he'll resist a tango and too much close quarter trading, stick to his jab and use his boxing skills to confound Tito. My fancy is Winky on a close points decision, but it's an awkward clash of styles, and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw an unusual, unexpected end to this one?
Eric Rineer - They are going to be two great fighters in the ring. But I like "Tito" Trinidad in this fight. He has the experience of so many big fights and he will certainly have a huge Puerto-Rican fan base at the MGM Grand on Saturday night. That support will be big time. I don't underestimate Wright at all and he is fighting at his very best these days. But Trinidad is tremendously accurate with his punches and I believe he will wear Winky down. Trinidad wins easy on points.
David P. Greisman - Winky Wright is technically sound, well-sized to fight Trinidad, can take a punch and has been waiting his whole career for opportunities such as this. Look for Tito to get frustrated and foul, but also look for Winky to get buzzed a couple of times when he gets too cocky. There could be a controversial decision, but in the end I am leaning towards a decision victory in favor of Winky Wright. Then again, I've been wrong a lot lately...
Rick Reeno - Based on styles, this is a very bad matchup for Winky Wright. Winky is making the same mistake as Ricardo Mayorga, by moving up to middleweight to fight Felix Trinidad. As in the Mayorga fight, Trinidad will come into the ring weighing between 170-175 pounds and will have a nice size advantage over Wright. The extra pounds on Tito will help him walk down Wright and land power punches. Trinidad will outmuscle Wright in the same fashion that Wright outmuscled Shane Mosley in both of their meetings. I just cant see Winky winning the fight from a distance and I think it will be suicide for Wright to fight Trinidad on the inside. Wright's only hope is to land quick punches and move to the side before Trinidad can counter.
In the end, I think Tito will chase Wright around for a few rounds before walking him down and scoring a TKO within ten rounds.