I have been reading a lot of what has been written in the last month on the stylistical problems involved in the Hopkins - Wright fight. Winky Wright has been depicted as a crafty boxer, as a chess player, something which he is clearly not. Unlike the game of chess which is very static, this will be more similar to the clash of two armies with two different doctrines. Winky Wright: Winky Wright follows a doctrine of attrition. He wins by landing more punches than his opponent. To do so, he throws volumes of punches and minimizes his opponents "punch landed" with his turtle shell guard. He fights like the Spartans used to fight: with a phalanx formation. In order to work, the phalanx needs to fight frontally. A quote from Wikipedia (too lazy for quality research today): "Although the phalanx formation was formidable and nearly indestructible from the front, its flanks and rear were very vulnerable because it was relatively slow-moving, and once engaged it could not easily disengage or redeploy to face a threat from those directions. In short it was an all or nothing tactic, it either pushed the enemy off the field or was outflanked and destroyed." Now, Winky knows this, hence the insistence that they "come to fight". He dares, by standing right there (remember when he challenged Mosley to hit him on the chin) to be hit, his opponent to do so. People expect Wright to win on volume against Hopkins and think Hopkins needs to throw volumes of punches to win this one. However, this is the wrong strategy because it plays right into Wright's gameplan. There were two fights in the Wright-Taylor fight. (1) Winky's fight: Taylor would try to punch through Wright's guard in a frontal assault, Winky would block the shots, then Winky would walk Jermain to the ropes and Jermain, being a terrible mover, would retreat right into the corner. Notice how Jermain collaborates here, unable to circle the ring he litterally retreats right into the corner. (2) Taylor's fight: Taylor uses the little movement he has and circles Wright in the middle of the ring, Wright is off balance and gets hit a lot with jabs and hooks. The Spartans fought effectively at Thermopylae (watch the movie 300) because they managed to force the Persians to fight in a narrow corridor... Winky wants his opponent to do just that. However, as soon as they were outflanked by the Persians, they were defeated. Bernard does not fight as if he was trapped in a narrow corridor. He uses all of the ring. Bernard, being the crafty mover that he is, will never offer a static target to Winky. He will outmaneouver Winky the whole fight, staying out of range with movement and feints, leaping in whenever he feels Wright will be too offbalanced to counterpunch. I think Bernard will win every round. He is the perfect antidote to Winky Wright's style.
I'd rather see Leonard-Duran II. Watching that little guy waddling back to his corner, clenching his cheeks together to keep the **** from dripping down is pure comedy genious :rofl :rofl :rofl "No Mas..." he wasn't talking about the fight, he was praying to god no more feces would squirt from his dirty, unwashed ass :deal