By Sammy Rozenberg
Upward and onward. Ronald “Winky” Wright (50-3, 25 KOs) defeats Australian Sam Soliman (31-8, 12 KOs) by way of unanimous decision. The scores were 115-112, 115-113 and 117-110.
The fight with Soliman was the most exciting fight for Winky in a long time. The workrate of Soliman made the fight and also made things very difficult for Wright. Soliman was riding a 19-fight win streak and was not going to lose that streak without a fight. During the course of the bout, Soliman threw 1260 punches, but he only landed 174 of them. Winky threw 652 punches and landed 300.
There were no knockdowns. Wright had Soliman in trouble in the tenth round. The chin of Soliman held up and he managed to escape the round to finish up the fight. Wright showed his boxing talent as he switched up his style several times to adapt to the unorthodox style of Soliman. Unlike Wright bout with Trinidad, this was a fight that made Winky work hard for the victory.
There were times when Winky had to become a puncher and stood his ground to exchange power punches with Soliman. Because the head of Soliman was always moving, Wright often targeted the body of Soliman and then followed with right hands to the head.
With the victory, Wright becomes the mandatory challenger to the IBF middleweight title.
Earlier today in Germany, Arthur Abraham (19-0, 17 KOs) won the vacant IBF middleweight world title by stopping Kingsley Ikeke (23-2, 13 KOs) in five rounds. Once thing is certain, Winky Wright is positioned to fight for a piece of the middleweight title in his next bout. Nothing is set in stone on which title Wright plans to target, but the bout that makes the most dollars is the bout that makes the most sense.
Wright has been very vocal about his desire to fight WBC/WBO/WBA middleweight champion Jermain Taylor is his next fight. On the other hand, Taylor’s handlers have already stated that Taylor is not going to face Wright next. Instead, Taylor is going to face an easier opponent in his hometown of Arkansas.
Wright, also the WBC mandatory, could petition the WBC to force Taylor’s hand. Based on the amount of chances the WBC gave Vitali Klitschko to fight Hasim Rahman, a petition would likely result in Taylor being granted an extension of time to face Wright.
Until such time that Taylor decides to Wright, the opinion of the public will be split on which fighter is the king of the middleweights. Taylor defeated Bernard Hopkins in back to back fashion, both times by close decision. What hurts Taylor in both wins is the fact that many feel Hopkins did enough in the ring to win both meetings. What also hurts Taylor is the fact that he was held to close decisions against a near 41-year-old fighter who was throwing one punch at a time.
On the other hand, Wright dominated Felix Trinidad in May, and decisioned Sam Soliman earlier tonight. With the exception of Hopkins, Trinidad and Soliman are better than any of Taylor’s previous opponents. Many experts regard Wright as one of the top three pound for pound fighters in the world. Taylor is located near the middle and/or bottom of most pound for pound lists.
To push the issue even further, Wright could challenge Abraham for his IBF middleweight crown, and then face Taylor to unify the entire division, as he did against Shane Mosley at 154 pounds. A fight with Abraham presents an age-old issue in boxing – less money for more risk.
Abraham is a 25-year-old future force in the middleweight division. In 19 fights, he has already defeated Ian Gardner, Howard Eastman and Kingsley Ikeke. It should be noted that Abraham has knocked out 17 of his 19 opponents. The kid has a punch and his knockout percentage will not make Wright rush any faster to fight him for a low amount of money.
Wright, like Taylor, could take a take a step back and fight an easier opponent while waiting on Taylor to finish his next fight. The camp of Taylor has gone on the record with their intention of putting together a fight with Wright by the end of 2006. Should the fight not come off, Wright may have no choice, but to target Abraham.
Neither Wright nor Taylor are major draws in the sport. They will need each other in order to make the most money.
Taylor still appears green, not as fundamentally polished as Wright. Taylor is the younger and stronger fighter, and can only get better with time. That is why Wright has to target him now, not a few fights down the road when Taylor may be a much more difficult challenge.
