Winky Wright is better and should be ranked higher than other 'names' from this era

I got a partial career set for Winky recently and have just finished watching it. It has led me to believe that because of the bizarre and totally unfounded perception that Winky is "boring", he is very underrated and underappreciated as a fighter.

Ability
Winky at his best was a truly fantastic fighter. The only guys I'd back to beat him at 154 would be ATGs Thomas Hearns and Mike McCallum. I see Winky beating Terry Norris, Wilfred Benitez and just about anyone else who ever fought there.

Winky was the master of using the peek-a-boo style defence. Far less skilled guys like Joshua Clottey use it to block punches, but don't have the nous to incorporate it into a strong all-round game. Winky could defend like that on the backfoot or the front, and could come forward behind it, allowing himself to be active and aggressive, unlike guys like Clottey. He was extremely hard to hit cleanly, has one of the best right jabs I've ever seen, and was very big, physically strong and tough at 154.

Resume
- TWO wins over

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Mosley was coming off a confidence-boosting win over Oscar De La Hoya. Winky convincingly beat him both times. In the first fight, he was absolutely superb. His defence was watertight, his jab was fantastic, and he both outthought and outfought Shane. In fact, he actually managed to make the super-competitive Mosley lose heart and become disillusioned, such was his control of the action. In the second fight, Shane "brung it" more, but again when the chips were down Wink was too strong, too smart, too busy, and deserved the victory

- A dominant and practically flawless win over

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In Tito's last 2 fights he had brutally knocked out both of his opponents, the second being a big win over the apparently iron-chinned Ricardo Mayorga. Tito had only ever lost once, to the physically bigger ATG middleweight king Bernard Hopkins, and seemed to be back on a tear. Winky produced one of THE boxing performances of the 2000s to win almost every round

- Did Winky deserve the decisions against a prime and undefeated

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, and a prime and undefeated middleweight champ

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??? I think so. A strong resume would look a whole lot stronger if he had gotten the nod against these two bigger names. If Winky had got the decisions that his performances deserved, how great would he be viewed as now?

- A raft of other solid wins vs the likes of Ike Quartey, Sam Soliman, and Bronco McKart(x3)

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Basically, the point of the thread is to say that Winky is underrated and underappreciated compared to some of his more high-profile counterparts from this era. At the top of the pile, you have the serious ATGs, Pacquiao and Jones Jr, maybe Hopkins and Mayweather as well depending on your viewpoint. After that, the names mentioned from this era are guys like Mosley, Trinidad, Calzaghe, Tszyu etc. Winky never seems to come up, but in reality he deserves to be ranked higher than the Calzaghes and the Tszyus. Winky was one of the very best of this age. In his lmw prime, he was easily as good as Tszyu at lww or Calzaghe at smw, and I'd say his resume is stronger than either of those two guys'.

Justice and recognition for Winky please!!! :bbb

 

I agree totally. Winky is actually in my top favorite 5 fighters.