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No Real Float, A Slight Sting, But You Can’t Deny It – It’s Winky Ali!
TUE, December 5 - Buster Paris - There was no real butterfly float – and only a slight bumblebee sting, but you can’t deny it – we all tasted it – that wonderful flavor - of a Southpaw Ali.
Sure that’s a feeble attempt at a Muhammad Ali-esque poem, but it seemed appropriate based on a Muhammad Ali-esque performance by Winky Wright.
Saturday – December 2nd, 2006 – at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, FL – Ronald “Winky” Wright (W 51 - 25 ko's, L 3 & D 1) and old friend Ike “Bazooka” Quartey (W 37 - 31 ko's, L 4 & D 1) laced them up and went at it in a fun, but pretty one-sided Middleweight bout (160 lbs) – and in the end I have to say Winky really had this Ali feel about him – and it was very impressive.
HBO’s pre-fight hype was exceptionally astute – the idea that both fighters have recently ‘been done wrong’ by boxing – for Wright it was his June 17th, 2006 draw against current Middleweight Champ Jermain “Bad Intentions” Taylor – Winky felt (as did a lot of us) that he won that fight – and for Quartey, well – you know it and I know it - he got robbed in New York on August 5th, 2006 and Vernon Forrest was given a gift.
So on this night in Florida it was about redemption – and at the end of 12 rounds the judges redeemed judges – and rightly had it as a unanimous decision for Wright – Judges Dave Moretti and Don Trella had it 117-110 and Judge Peter Trematerra had it 117-109.
The fight itself was enjoyable and had some interesting moments – Wright knocked Quartey down in the 2nd round and again in the 8th, but that was questionable – it looked like Ike’s glove touched the canvas as he got pretty wobbled by Winky, but on the replay it proved to clearly not have touched – HBO’s Jim Lampley brought up the excellent point of the replay system used in other sports to be used in boxing – and that actually is something we should be talking about soon.
Anyway – the fight was a good fight, both trading, both fighting well and the action was good, but Winky was just so much better, threw too many punches (1,011 total), was too good on defense and has too good a chin for Quartey to ever really have a chance.
It was interesting too to hear HBO’s analysts talking about how Winky is more flat footed than they’re used to seeing him and that he is more offensive minded and how in his last two fights -- as well as this one – that he is taking more shots and you could plainly see that he looked like he’d been in a fight and that’s something new for him.
It was in round 6 that I noticed it – it was in round 6 that I made that noise I make when I’m pretending to be Muhammad Ali -- ‘puh-pap! –
A couple of things came together – it was a combination of things – a combination of Lampley and the crew’s chatter and of Winky throwing … combinations.
It wasn’t necessarily the combos that he threw – it was the way he was throwing them – specifically - the ol’ one-two and then getting out of the way. There was something very Muhammad Ali about it, but it was the Ali after the exile – the Ali that came back after being robbed of 3 of his prime and best years - the Muhammad Ali that was slower and more flat footed –
Wright would throw his lead hand – for him as a Southpaw it’s his right – so he’d pop that out and then right behind it as it was snapping back and without missing a beat was the left hand crash landing and then being quickly pulled back – ‘puh-pap!’ – you could actually hear the faintest echo of Drew “Bundini” Brown crying out in joy “…all night long Champ – all night long…”
All that was missing from Wright’s offense was the grabbing of the head after the one-two and pulling it down.
Even part of Winky’s defense was Ali-esque – when he’d rest some on the ropes and the way he held his hands by his head, was all tucked in, but standing straight – and slightly bowed at the shoulders – it was really very Ali like.
It’s very interesting to see the similarities of phase 2 of Wright’s career and of Ali’s career – tell me if you see any difference in this description of Winky – tell me if you can’t swap out their names:
-Relying and trusting his chin more
-More “willing” to get hit
-Dropped a certain aspect/layer of defense
-More confident in standing his ground
-Plans on fighting the full 12 rounds
-Tougher puncher
-Flat footed
I’m not saying that Winky Wright is as good as Muhammad Ali – I’m simply noting the incredible similarities stylistically as their careers changed from young fighter to older warrior – and that this “new” Winky Wright is stylistically similar to The Greatest of ALL Time – Muhammad Ali.
So – what now? -- what’s left for Winky to prove?
He wants the winner of Oscar De La Hoya vs Floyd Mayweather Jr. (May 5th 2007) – it’s hard at this moment in time to speculate about how Wright would fair against either of those two – we’ll get a much better idea after the fight.
If Oscar wins – we’ll know how Oscar fights against masterful and impenetrable defense.
If Floyd wins – we’ll know that Floyd can truly hang with the big boys – that the natural size difference is not and will not be a factor.
So – we really need to see how that fight goes – however there is one point that truly outweighs all of these other considerations regarding De La Hoya vs Mayweather:
After May 5th 2007 – the whole world as we know it will change --- and Ronald “Winky” Wright will have the opportunity of a lifetime -
Buster Paris can be reached at: bparis@talkingboxing.com - and always enjoys receiving your thoughts, comments and questions
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