By Frank Lotierzo
A little over three weeks ago WBC light welterweight champ Floyd Mayweather Jr. issued challenges to Shane Mosley, Zab Judah and any other fighter who holds a title below heavyweight. As of this writing, none of Mayweather's challenges have been accepted. In a lot of the cases it's the business of boxing that's preventing these fights from being realized. As most know, unless the fighter is named Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya, Roy Jones or Bernard Hopkins, he has no say about who he fights.
When Mayweather didn't get any takers from the previous mentioned fighters, he surprised everybody when he issued a challenge to former undisputed junior middleweight champ Winky Wright. I even read one writer who described Mayweather challenging Wright as, "A guy who could easily make the 135-pound lightweight limit called out the world's best middleweight." Winky Wright the world's best middleweight? Could it be the writer never heard of Jermain Taylor, the undisputed middleweight champion? Or how about the fighter who many still think holds that claim, former champion Bernard Hopkins, the fighter Taylor won a split decision over to capture the title?
I applaud Mayweather for his challenges and stating he challenged Wright because, as he said, "I want to be great." I just don't believe he was totally sincere. The linking of Winky Wright and Floyd Mayweather Jr. is interesting because of how the career perception of both fighters has changed dramatically based on how they looked in their last fights. In May, Wright dominated Felix Trinidad (as a 7-5 underdog), winning a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision. Mayweather stopped the always tough Arturo Gatti after the sixth round (as an almost 5-1 favorite) a month later.
I can't remember the last time a fighter, in this case two fighters, became so unbeatable based on one fight against opponents who carried more than a little baggage into the ring with them the night of the fight. Before Wright fought Trinidad, despite being solid throughout his career, Shane Mosley was the only upper-tier fighter Winky beat conclusively up to that point. In his rematch against Mosley, one judge scored the fight a draw. In his next bout against Felix Trinidad, Winky never looked better or more complete. Since that fight he was thought of by some to be capable of beating Hopkins, and one writer even believes he's the world's best middleweight. Only one assumption can be drawn from that: Wright is better than Taylor and Hopkins?
Anyone viewing Winky Wright better than either Bernard Hopkins or Jermain Taylor based off his win over Felix Trinidad, subscribes to reason and logic that I would have to have explained to me. The Trinidad who fought Wright was nowhere close to the fighter who went in the ring with Hopkins. On top of that, Hopkins beat Trinidad more decisively than Wright and even took the decision out of the judges hands by stopping him. Since being stopped by Hopkins, Trinidad hasn't been the same fighter. Yet Wright was unable to beat an older and rusty Trinidad as soundly as Hopkins did a prime Trinidad four years earlier. What is the logic used to deduce such an opinion suggesting Wright would be even money versus Hopkins, or Taylor for that matter?
A month after Wright retired Trinidad, Mayweather took apart Arturo Gatti. Since the fight, I've heard it said by some that Mayweather would've beaten a prime Roberto Duran and Aaron Pryor in fights fought in-between 135 and 140, something that wouldn't have been funny as a joke prior to Mayweather's stoppage of Gatti. The foolish projections about Mayweather make the one declaring Wright the top middleweight in boxing look almost reasonable.
The junior welterweight version of Gatti who Mayweather beat was ten pounds above and ten years removed from his best fighting days. Since leaving the junior lightweight division before his fight against Mayweather, Gatti was stopped by Angel Manfredy and dropped two decisions against Ivan Robinson fighting as a lightweight. In his next big fight against a world class opponent, Oscar De La Hoya dominated Gatti and stopped him in the fifth round fighting as a welterweight. A year later, Micky Ward decisioned Gatti fighting a couple pounds above the junior welterweight limit. Gatti came back and beat Ward twice in 13 months by decision to take their trilogy 2-1.
The logic needed to conclude Mayweather would get by either Duran or Pryor is incomprehensible. Since these type of things were never uttered before about Mayweather, so it must be based on his showing against Gatti. The aftermath of Floyd Mayweather's showing against Gatti, and Wright's against Trinidad, is a trap many boxing observers routinely fall for. That is, they base everything off of one fight. A little over a year ago Antonio Tarver was being called the next Michael Spinks after knocking out Roy Jones in their rematch. In his very next fight he lost his title to a fighter who was 9-9-2 in his last 20 fights. Obviously Tarver wasn't as good as he looked versus Jones and not as average as he looked in his next fight against Glen Johnson.
I've said this before and I'll repeat it again: Mayweather is not quite as great as he looked in his last fight and the same applies to Winky Wright. Again, I'm not taking anything from either fighter. Both Wright and Mayweather belong among the top five in the mythical pound-for-pound ranks. That said, Wright has been unimpressive more times in a big spot than he's impressed. In Mayweather's case, taking apart Arturo Gatti doesn't qualify him as Duran's equal.
The overstated greatness of Mayweather and Wright at this moment could possibly lead to them fighting, that is if Mayweather is to be believed. When Mayweather challenged Wright a few weeks back, the first reaction by many was, "Is he crazy?" Shortly afterward Mayweather was being talked about as if he's the greatest and bravest fighter who ever stepped into the ring. Again this proves that many writers and fans will buy almost anything if it's delivered in a way that makes it easy for them to believe and accept.
I hate to ruin the fantasy, but I don't believe Mayweather had any intention of getting in the ring with Winky Wright. He knew he could get a lot of attention by just throwing the challenge out. He knew he'd never have to back it up. All Mayweather had to do was make demands that weren't close to realistic and then hide behind the fact that he's the smaller fighter, which is exactly what happened.
According to one newspaper report in the St. Petersburg Times of July 26, it was the fighters' splits that squashed the fight. Wright's promoter Gary Shaw said he wasn't accepting less than a 50-50 split. Surprise, the 50-50 split was unacceptable to the Mayweather faction, which really says everything. The same paper reported that Gary Shaw insisted that Bob Arum, Mayweather's promoter, played dirty, changing the money terms and the two had already wrangled over a series of demands by the Mayweather camp, something that's not hard to believe at all. Just maybe Arum and Mayweather were starting to think Shaw and Wright were close to accepting the fight, which they didn't want because most likely they really had no intention of ever making the fight.
What does Wright gain from beating Mayweather? Nothing! Not to mention that if the fight isn't a blowout in his favor, it'll be construed as a loss. On the other hand, Mayweather will be viewed as the ultimate warrior if he just comes out for the first round. If the fight goes the distance and Wright wins every second of every round, but fails to knock Mayweather out, he'll be dismissed by many as a legitimate middleweight title threat.
I don't believe Floyd Mayweather ever wanted to fight Winky Wright for a second. But he got some publicity for making the challenge that far too many believe he was serious about. I'll believe Mayweather wants to fight Wright when and if it happens. If he was serious he'd accept the terms. The 50-50 split that's acceptable to the Wright camp seems fair to me, especially since they're in a no-win situation. On the other hand, Mayweather can't lose and just not getting mutilated by Wright in the fight will be thought of as a win.
Floyd Mayweather is no fool. He was hurt by Jose Luis Castillo, which is something that has been cleansed by his victory over Gatti. In 24 rounds fought over two fights with Castillo, he never had him off his feet. In reality he should be 1-1 against him. There were more than a few, including myself, who scored the first fight for Castillo.
So Mayweather can forget about stopping Wright, who hasn't been stopped once in 52 career fights against opponents weighing in between 154-160. Wright is bigger, stronger, and his punches will bother Mayweather much more than he'll be bothered by his. And let's not forget, Winky is a smart southpaw boxer and not the walk-in, face-first fighter that Gatti is.
Based on how they won their last fights, I think Winky Wright and Floyd Mayweather have been getting a little more high praise than they should be getting. Despite Mayweather being seen as Sugar Ray Robinson's equal after beating Arturo Gatti, I don't see any way that he can beat Wright. Wright's too big and good of a fighter to lose to a fighter who can't hurt him and isn't nearly strong enough to out box him. The only thing more unrealistic than thinking Mayweather would beat Wright is believing that he really wants to fight him.
I'm telling you, don't waste your time reading about a Mayweather-Wright fight. If Mayweather really wanted to fight Winky, it would happen. For that to happen he has to be realistic in his demands. I'm still waiting for the Lewis-Jones press conference.