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Hopkins vs. Wright - A Swollen Eye And A Whoopin’
TUE July 17, BUSTER PARIS - Right now forget the historical significance of this fight. Forget the fact that this bout will dramatically change the landscape of today’s boxing as we know it.
July 21st at the Mandalay Bay in good ol’ Las Vegas, Nevada, Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins (W 47 - 32 ko's, L 4 & D 1) and Ronald “Winky” Wright (W 51 - 25 ko's, L 3 & D 1) are meeting at a catch weight of 170 lbs and giving boxing fans a gift.
It’s one of those all too rare match ups that you and your buddies sit around and talk about – never thinking it would actually occur, but having a great time talking about the “what if’s”.
Well, it’s here, and for Hopkins vs. Wright, we’re guaranteed two things:
A swollen eye and a whoopin’.
The thing with these two Champions is that aside from knowing we’re getting an amazing fight, we’re not 100% sure as to what type of fight we’re in store for. It could go one of two ways, or even a combination of those ways.
We’re either getting ready for a terrific, well thought out, and well fought out fight, that will go all 12 rounds, and at the end, have both fighters looking swollen, battered and bruised.
Or – it will be a strategist’s beauty pageant. The kind of fight that has the fans moaning, and aware of their butts falling asleep, but has pugilistic students - ok, boxing nerds like me watching every movement.
It really all depends on the strategies that Winky and B-Hop have planned for this fight, and both men always come in incredibly prepared and have a set course in mind.
Bernard’s plan has really only backfired once – the first Jermain Taylor fight (7.16.2005). He fought the perfect fight plan … for a 15 round fight.
For Winky, even though he has lost fights, his fight plan has never failed. The plans and strategies have always been the correct ones, and it’s been other factors that have given him those 3 “L’s”.
Wright and Hopkins are two of the top, and best, defensive fighters fighting in recent history.
They are more than just textbook defensive masters. Bernard is eerily patient, devious, and fights like a paper cut. He hurts, he irritates, and there’s something so frustratingly unfair and dramatically unsettling about suffering a paper cut.
Winky, is incredibly crafty and composed. He has this great ability to lull an opponent in by managing his speed and utilizing the awkwardness of being a Southpaw, where his foe feels superiorly graceful, or in better position, and then the flurry, and then the pain, and then Winky with his arms raised.
Hopkins and Wright are also two of the sports hardest worn warriors. Both men have struggled and fought tooth and nail for everything they have, and it’s in their souls to not let another man even think of taking it away.
Both men also have burn marks from tussling with Jermain Taylor. Bernard won that second fight (12.03.2005), even though they gave it to Jermain, and Winky beat him back in 2006 (6.17.2006) even though they called it a draw.
So – both men have something to prove by beating the other.
And that brings us here, who is going to win? There’s nothing more I’d like to predict than a draw, but gun to my head - I’d have to say that Winky Wright is going to win the fight.
He’s faster than Bernard, he’s a Southpaw, he’s immune to Hopkins’s tricks, and he’s been both an offensive mined slugger/brawler (see the Sugar Shane Mosley fights) and a defensive minded counter puncher, who has dealt with a tsunami of clumsily brilliant, and gawkily unexpected flying fists coming from unimaginable angles (see the Sam Soliman fight). So I give Wright the edge in what will most likely be a very … VERY close fight.
No matter how it ends, it’s going to be a great bout, and it will be really old school in two of the most important areas:
A swollen eye and a whoopin’.
Buster Paris can be reached at: bparis@talkingboxing.com - and always enjoys receiving your thoughts, comments and questions
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