By Rick Reeno

There are only a handful of fights that I can recall off the top of my head where a fighter's level of skill just blew me away, this past Saturday's performance by Winky Wright was one of those occasions.

I remember when Felix Trinidad was seeking a bout with Winky Wright there were two thoughts that popped in head;

1. When is Trinidad going to stop picking on these smaller guys and fight a legit middleweight.

2. Wright is crazy to face Trinidad at 160 pounds.

This was a fight that the Trinidad camp pursued, they chased Winky for this fight and not the other way around. At one point this fight almost fell apart because Winky wanted more money, rather then find a new opponent, Don King came up with more cash in order to secure Winky. The Trinidad camp thought Tito would just power right through Winky Wright and probably got that idea the same way I did, by watching Wright's two battles with Shane Mosley. Who would think that Wright, coming off a close rematch win over Shane Mosley where he won seven of twelve rounds, would dominate all twelve rounds against Felix Trinidad in his next fight. The same Shane Mosley that moved back down to 147 pounds was never close to going down against Wright or ever seriously hurt by any of Wright's punches. I am positive that Trinidad's camp watched those fights and felt that Wright had no chance against what they perceived to be the much bigger and stronger Tito. 

Following Wright's win on Saturday, several experts suggested Trinidad is a shot fighter, they said the same thing about Mosley when Wright beat him. I don't think Mosley or Trinidad are shot, I have come to the conclusion that Winky Wright is just that good. My personal preference as far as boxers I like to watch has always been with power punchers. I love to watch guys that try to knock out every opponent they face, Trinidad is one of those fighters. Trinidad's power and wins over dozens of quality opponents fooled me and most of the public into thinking that Wright would not be able to compete with a big middleweight like Trinidad. 

Trinidad did not seem like the same fighter that faced Ricardo Mayorga last year. I know many will say that Mayorga was tailor made for Tito and he was, but Trinidad showed very little rust in that fight and appeared to be the same Trinidad we all know. Against Mayorga, Trinidad showed a pistol-like jab, he put combinations together, he went to the body and showed plenty of movement. Against Wright, Trinidad could not even get past a stiff jab or land more then a few punches per round. 

When Trinidad-Wright was going into the seventh round, I started to get flashbacks of Trinidad's battle with Olympic gold medal winner David Reid. It was Trinidad's first battle at 154 pounds, Reid dropped Tito in the third round and won the first six rounds on most scorecards. Reid seemed too strong and too quick for Tito, but in the seventh round the entire fight changed. Trinidad landed one left hook on Reid in the seventh round and Reid was never the same fighter for the rest of the fight. Trinidad went on to dominate Reid for the second half of the fight, dropping him several times, ultimately winning the fight and his first title at 154 pounds. The comeback lefthook by Trinidad never came against Winky Wright, it never even came close. Trinidad connected with only 17% of his punches and never landed any flush power shot to the chin of Wright. Trinidad is not some overrated fighter, he defeated at least a dozen world class opponents, most in their prime and most by knockout. 

Some are calling this the worst lopsided decision loss by one world class fighter to another world class fighter on such a huge pay per view event and the fight might very well deserve that title. Wright came into this fight with a plan and stuck to his plan for twelve rounds. Wright stuck the jab in Trinidad's face all night long and used his long arms to block any counter punches Tito tried to land. Wright also made sure that he was always out of range of Tito's money punch, the lefthook. Every single time that Tito tried to get close to Wright, Winky just put the jab back in Tito's face. Tito was unable to get past Wright's elbows in order to land body punches and when he tried to get under Wright's elbows he would often land low blows. Trinidad did not even try to block the jabs of Wright, he was just too slow. I don't know how many times a fighter has to get hit with same punch before they step back and look for a plan B, but Trinidad was unable to adapt to the situation.

This fight sort of reminds me of Tyson-Holyfield 1. Tyson made a return to the ring after several years, blew away a few tailor made opponents and then runs into Holyfield who was a heavy underdog in the fight. Some thought Tyson might seriously hurt Holyfield and Evander shocked the world by dropping Tyson and eventually stopping him in 11 rounds. Tito was off for two years, beats a guy who was tailor made for him and then ran into Wright. Tyson-Holyield was much more of a competitive fight, it won ring magazine's prestigious fight of the year award. Wright-Trinidad is not even close to a fight of the year battle, it was a sparring session. Evander was also a much bigger underdog then Wright, I recall that only a single writer out of 42 picked Evander to beat Tyson. Most of the media was split among who would win with Trinidad and Wright, but how Wright won the fight even shocked the writers that picked him to win.

This fight changed my entire perception of Winky Wright. While I never believed this in the past, I know believe that Wright hits much harder then most people think. Wright may not be a power puncher, but obviously hits hard enough to not only gain the respect of his opponent but also keeps them at bay. I also think that Wright takes a much better shot then I ever gave him credit for in the past, any punch Tito was able to land did absolutely nothing to Wright.

The middleweight division is pretty stacked now and Wright has the ability to give any of the top fighters at 160 trouble. In the end, Wright proved to the entire world what he was preaching for months, that he was the "wrong" choice for Felix Trinidad.