How will he be thought of years down the road? What fights do you feel he was robbed in, and by how much? Best victories? Worst performances? Has there been a more avoided fighter in recent years?
I watched his schooling of talented (but fairly green) Englishmen Adrian Dodson back in the 90s. It was magnificent, as one-sided a technicians bout as I have ever seen. Would love to watch it again but have never been able to get my hands on it. Maybe one day it will make it onto Youtube... Wright is the sort of boxer that gets screwed by the system. He makes his opponents look ordinary, he wins on points, he rarely scores a devastating KO, he gets avoided, his career stalls, he gets no kudos from the general fan, and he is given losses in close fights because he is deemed by promoters to be unable to make money for them. Shame.
As a real solid, underrated pro who was extremely difficult to clearly beat, probably falling just short of greatness. It's hard to call him a great because most of the elite fighters he fought were either past their primes (e.g. Hopkins, Tito, Quartey) or outside their best weight classes (e.g. Mosley). For mine, Winky has only ever lost one fight, to Julio Cesar Vasquez as a green kid. I had him taking the Harry Simon fight by three points, I had him beating Jermain Taylor by 2 points and I had the Vargas and Hopkins fights scored draws. I can't really say he was robbed in any of those fights though because they were real close and you could make arguments that he lost those fights. The Trinidad win was a total schooling. Trinidad did not win a 30 second stretch of that fight. The first Mosley fight was a good performance as well. And all things considered (moving up against a bigger guy) I felt that his performance against Taylor was very good. Thought he looked fairly average against Sam Soliman and he clearly didn't look like he belonged at 170 against Hopkins. That said, I still think he did enough to get a draw there, for Bernard didn't show much himself. He looked slow and past it to some extent against Quartey I felt. The Vasquez fight of course was a beatdown by Julio, but Winky still impressed me there for fighting the last 4 rounds against a guy as strong as a bull when he had no legs under him. Someone without as much mental strength would have caved in. He was a high risk/little reward proposition for most of his career and so not too many fighters wanted a piece of him. Unfortunately how it goes sometimes....
The others being McCallum, Jackson, Norris and Hearns? Yeah I suppose so. Of course, I'd take quite a few fighters over him if we include all the guys that crossed 147 to 160 over the years. Since the division has been in operation though, yeah he'd make the top 5.
Did he deserve the nod over Jermain Taylor? If you think he did then that puts his resume in a verry diferent perspective. It would mean that he should have been the lineal middleweight champion and whatever you say about Taylor he will go down in history as a solid champion.
He hadn't even fought in eight round fights by the time he had been rushed into the Vasquez fight, right? Then suddenly he's going 12 with a fighter who has as many championship rounds as he's fought rounds period. The conditions down there supposedly had him really out of it/sick too.
I think Wright was an under appreciated fighter with great defense, and jabbing ability. On top of this, Wright was a south-paw. Wright probably had the best high guard type of defense I’ve ever seen. Many promoters didn't like Wrights style, so Wright had to take his act on the road to France and England . It is possible that Wrights lack of marketability cost him a decision win over Vargus. Honestly, I felt Wright won that fight. It was not until Wright beat Mosley 2x, and Trinidad until he received great recognition as a top fighter, and by then he was in his mid 30’s.
Robbed? I think he did enough to get the win against Taylor. Best Performance? I think his most impressive performance was his first fight against Shane Mosley due to the fact that Mosley, in my eyes, was a better fighter and bigger task than Trinidad at that time. If he would have dominated Trinidad in that same exact fashion while Trinidad was still in his prime, then I would give the nod to that bout. Worst Performance? I would say the fight against Hopkins. He showed he didn't belong no where near an arena, let alone a ring, at 170lbs. Most avoided? I wouldn't say most avoided. He got his opportunities against house hold names like Vargas then Mosley, which gave him the opportunity, which he capitalize on, to get the championship; and got to fight for another championship against Jermain Taylor and fought Hopkins (not for championship).
And all of these fights have come near the tail end of his career. He did a LOT of travelling and fighting before them.
True - but when his career is over, the fights will still go on record. So if the question is- most avoided during a certain part of their career, he could be a candidate. Though, like in any sport, some get opportunities and develop careers later than early (e.g. Vargas).
A very effective fighter without a colorful personality or crowd pleasing style. I thought he beat Vargas back in 1999. But were they going to let a brash, colorful Mexican-american warrior with a crowd-pleasing style get the first blemish on his record against someone like Winky? Heck no. Vargas even bought a tiger out there with him. Winky is just a nice, lowkey guy with a style that only the boxing purist can appreciate. He's not pulling in the casual viewer ala Vargas, Del La Hoya, Trinidad, etc.
