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Wright wants Pavlik AND Oscar...
In perhaps a sign of wishful thinking on his part, former IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO light middleweight champion Ronald “Winky” Wright (51-4-1, 25 KOs) mentioned on Wednesday night’s ESPN boxing telecast that he’s interested in fighting only big fights, and has both Oscar De La Hoya and WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. The main problem with Wright’s dream fights, however, is that at age 36, he isn’t a media draw like De La Hoya or Pavlik, and isn’t someone that they’d likely be interested in fighting at this point.
Wright hasn’t helped himself, for that matter, by staying away from boxing for the past year after his 12-round unanimous decision loss to Bernard Hopkins in July 2007. It was a close fight, but like many of Wright’s fights, it wasn’t particularly exciting to watch. Even before that, ignoring his win over a come backing Ike Quartey, Wright had fought to a 12-round draw with Jermain Taylor in June 2006. Many people felt that Wright was extremely fortunate to get a draw out of that fight, for he appeared to have lost by the fight by many accounts by at least a round or two. However, all of that could possibly be ignored by fighters like Pavlik and De La Hoya, if Wright had a history of being in exciting fights.
Unfortunately, Wright has always been a more technically oriented fighter, focused more on his sound defense and excellent jab than on a high octane offense. Because of this, he’s been avoided by many fighters, who see him as being far too dangerous to fight, and not worth it unless there’s no other way around fighting him.
That’s why it’s been a big mistake for Wright to have taken a year off without fighting anyone. He needed to have stayed busy during this time, if nothing else than to stay on the top of the rankings so he can land another title shot. As of now, Wright’s ranked #5 in the IBF and #9 in the WBC. The IBF middleweight champion is currently Arthur Abraham, who Wright has said in the past that he’s not interested in fighting. As for the WBC, Wright still has a way to go before he can force Pavlik to fight him by virtue of being the number one challenger.
I suppose there’s a chance that Pavlik might want to fight Wright sometime down the round, perhaps after Pavlik has exhausted all of his potential big-named opponents. However, by that time, Wright will likely be pushing 38 or 39, and even then it remains questionable that he’ll be able to beat some of the younger lions in the middleweight division in order to stay relevant. I think the worse thing working against Wright now, besides his encroaching age, is his attitude about wanting to take only the big fights. That’s not a healthy attitude considering that he’s not done the things in the past year to force the issue with Pavlik. Without a high ranking, like #1 or #2, Pavlik isn’t likely to waste time on fighting Wright.
As for De La Hoya, he’s made it clear that he’s at the end of his career and only intends on fighting two to three more times tops. One of the fights is going to be against Floyd Mayweather this September, and depending on who ends up the winner between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito, we might be seeing De La Hoya against Cotto. Minus that, De La Hoya won’t be fighting Margarito, because he’s not interested in a fight with him, even though it would be an interesting, if not highly profitable bout.
Ricky Hatton, if he shapes up and starts winning more impressively, might be the third option for De La Hoya, should Oscar opt for a third fight. Wright, however, as good as he still might be, isn’t even being considered as a potential opponent, not by Oscar and not by Pavlik. If I was Wright, I’d try and go after Abraham, the IBF champion, at least that way Wright could get an easy belt and then set himself up for possible unifications bouts against Felix Sturm, the WBA middleweight champion, or possibly Pavlik, if he’s so inclined.
Wright hasn’t helped himself, for that matter, by staying away from boxing for the past year after his 12-round unanimous decision loss to Bernard Hopkins in July 2007. It was a close fight, but like many of Wright’s fights, it wasn’t particularly exciting to watch. Even before that, ignoring his win over a come backing Ike Quartey, Wright had fought to a 12-round draw with Jermain Taylor in June 2006. Many people felt that Wright was extremely fortunate to get a draw out of that fight, for he appeared to have lost by the fight by many accounts by at least a round or two. However, all of that could possibly be ignored by fighters like Pavlik and De La Hoya, if Wright had a history of being in exciting fights.
Unfortunately, Wright has always been a more technically oriented fighter, focused more on his sound defense and excellent jab than on a high octane offense. Because of this, he’s been avoided by many fighters, who see him as being far too dangerous to fight, and not worth it unless there’s no other way around fighting him.
That’s why it’s been a big mistake for Wright to have taken a year off without fighting anyone. He needed to have stayed busy during this time, if nothing else than to stay on the top of the rankings so he can land another title shot. As of now, Wright’s ranked #5 in the IBF and #9 in the WBC. The IBF middleweight champion is currently Arthur Abraham, who Wright has said in the past that he’s not interested in fighting. As for the WBC, Wright still has a way to go before he can force Pavlik to fight him by virtue of being the number one challenger.
I suppose there’s a chance that Pavlik might want to fight Wright sometime down the round, perhaps after Pavlik has exhausted all of his potential big-named opponents. However, by that time, Wright will likely be pushing 38 or 39, and even then it remains questionable that he’ll be able to beat some of the younger lions in the middleweight division in order to stay relevant. I think the worse thing working against Wright now, besides his encroaching age, is his attitude about wanting to take only the big fights. That’s not a healthy attitude considering that he’s not done the things in the past year to force the issue with Pavlik. Without a high ranking, like #1 or #2, Pavlik isn’t likely to waste time on fighting Wright.
As for De La Hoya, he’s made it clear that he’s at the end of his career and only intends on fighting two to three more times tops. One of the fights is going to be against Floyd Mayweather this September, and depending on who ends up the winner between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito, we might be seeing De La Hoya against Cotto. Minus that, De La Hoya won’t be fighting Margarito, because he’s not interested in a fight with him, even though it would be an interesting, if not highly profitable bout.
Ricky Hatton, if he shapes up and starts winning more impressively, might be the third option for De La Hoya, should Oscar opt for a third fight. Wright, however, as good as he still might be, isn’t even being considered as a potential opponent, not by Oscar and not by Pavlik. If I was Wright, I’d try and go after Abraham, the IBF champion, at least that way Wright could get an easy belt and then set himself up for possible unifications bouts against Felix Sturm, the WBA middleweight champion, or possibly Pavlik, if he’s so inclined.
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