By Mark Vester
During a recent conference call with the media, Dan Birmingham, trainer of Ronald "Winky" Wright, told the press that Wright is going to test the age and stamina of the 42-year-old Hopkins when they meet on July 21 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
In a report by ITV, Birmingham said that fans should not expect a chess match on July 21, because Wright is going to attack Hopkins early and make him work every second or every round. After reviewing Hopkins' dominating 2006 win over Antonio Tarver, they only saw Hopkins throwing 30-40 punches per round. Wright plans to throw up to 90 punches per round to overwhelm the naturally bigger man.
"We're going to force this fight. We're going to make Bernard fight, where he's never been hit this much and this often. You look at Winky's past fights, he's landed punches every five to 10 seconds on every opponent, and Bernard's not going to be any exception," Birmingham said. "We're coming right at him and we're going to force the fight. It's not going to be another Tarver situation where we laid back and try to wait for something to happen. We're going to force the issue."
Most experts view Wright, who moves up nearly two weight classes from 160 to a catch-weight of 170-pounds to fight Hopkins, at a disadvantage because he is going to be the smaller man. According to Birmingham, Wright has gotten a lot bigger and stronger with the added weight.
"He looks bigger and stronger than ever. Darryl Hudson to me is one of the best strength and conditioning coaches in the country. He was a track star, one of the fastest guys in the country, competed against Carl Lewis. He's got a degree in nutrition and exercise physiology and he's really made a real change with Winky," Birmingham said. "Wink's not only going to be bigger and stronger, but he's still going to be flexible and fast as he usually is. So we're not worried about how big and strong Bernard is because Winky's going to be big and strong, too."
"If you look at Winky's past history the better the fighter, the more he gets up. And I've been putting it in his head since we signed for this fight that Bernard is going to be the best tactical fighter that you fought, the strongest guy that you're going to fight and the toughest guy you're going to fight."
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