About two years ago, after a pair of Tucson press conferences, this column predicted the careers of Winky Wright and Rocky Juarez would diverge considerably -- with Wright's taking the bad turn: "In 2007, Winky Wright and Rocky Juarez will see their careers go on paths opposite those of 2006."
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| Wright looks to become relevant again. (Getty Images) |
Since those press conferences in 2007, Juarez has fought five times, twice for world titles, including a recent draw in a match for the WBA featherweight belt. Wright has fought only once -- a decision loss to Bernard Hopkins for no title whatever in a made-up weight class, 21 months ago.
Wright will be coming out of his involuntary retirement Saturday in a middleweight tilt with Paul Williams, staged at Mandalay Bay and broadcast by HBO. Wright will try to remind fans, and others, why so many of his peers avoided fighting him for so long. Appropriately enough, Wright will do this against the man who has inherited his most-avoided crown.
This will be a good fight, better than expected, because of what happened on the conference call a few weeks ago. Or what didn't happen. Back to that in a bit.
In most ways, Wright's career reached its apogee at the end of the 11th round of his fight with Jermain Taylor in 2006. Then, he was about to become the undisputed middleweight champion of the world. That seemed to be the very thought that flowed through Wright's head while he sat on his stool and awaited the final round.
His longtime trainer saw it and beseeched him to fight the 12th with his "(expletive) heart!" But Wright loafed. Taylor won it on two cards. The result was a draw that let Taylor keep his belts. Wright stormed from the ring, bitter and refusing interview requests. He overplayed his hand in negotiations for a rematch. He bullied HBO into overpaying for a dull mismatch with Ike Quartey. Then he came to Tucson to announce his bout with the unretired Hopkins.
It was a fight nobody asked for. When a few scribes were indelicate enough to point this out, Wright -- sporting a white baseball cap tilted in the comical style of the moment -- was unpleasant, vulgar and incoherent. He officially put boxing on notice: I'm about to squander most of the goodwill of my career, and there ain't nothing y'all can do about it.
And into the woods he went. Hopkins decisioned him, and everyone who never wanted to fight him had an excuse not to. The man who'd mastered Shane Mosley, Felix Trinidad and some of Taylor, too, couldn't find an opponent for almost two years. Good riddance to a southpaw difficult in more ways than one.
That brings us to Paul Williams, the first guy to agree to a match with Wright in some time. Williams is a southpaw as well, but he seems to be difficult only in the ring. Otherwise he says "yes sir" a lot and signs to fight any man who'll face him -- from 147 pounds to 160. Why isn't Williams more popular? I have no idea.
A good argument could be made that he is boxing's most compelling story. As an unproven entity, he climbed in a Southern California ring and beat the "most feared" welterweight of the time, Antonio Margarito, who might have fought with loaded gloves. Since then, Williams has fought twice at welterweight, once at junior middleweight and once at middleweight. A Georgia resident, Williams has spent the past four years fighting mostly in California, with a couple of stops in Nevada and one in Connecticut. He'll fight anywhere, in other words, at any weight.
He is a throwback fighter with a freakish, 6-foot-1 physique that he can somehow boil to 147 pounds. He throws hundreds of punches, including an inside, under-the-opponent's-elbow uppercut that is both bizarre and effective. In a perfect boxing world, Williams would make every fan's top five list. Instead, he's willfully ignored by belt holders and their handlers.
But he's not bitter about it. "I'm grateful for the opportunity that Winky's giving me," Williams said a few weeks back.
And for his part, Wright sounds happy to be out of exile. "I want to thank Paul for stepping up and taking this fight."
Two guys who speak respectfully about one another on a conference call? Uh oh.
No, not uh-oh. Contrary to pop-culture apologists everywhere, a lack of trash talking does not diminish an upcoming prizefight. Quite the opposite. The amount of violence and abuse that happens during the promotion of a fight is often inversely proportionate to the amount of violence and abuse that happens in the ring itself. Sorry, Money May.
Or as Joe Calzaghe so aptly put it when defensive master Bernard Hopkins alluded to Calzaghe's possible death in their 2008 fight: "Do you even listen to yourself?"
Mutual respect between prizefighters can lead to great fights. Williams makes a fight every time he steps in the ring. And before you roll your eyes about any great fight involving Winky, stop for a moment and think it through. Wright has been in much better fights than most of us care to remember.
Saturday will see an offensive juggernaut in Williams try to outwork an old (and rusty) defense-oriented southpaw with a great jab. If Williams dominates Wright, he'll be the first to do so. If Wright finds a way to neutralize Williams, he'll have genuine leverage in negotiating future paydays. My suspicion is that both men's reputations will be elevated by the action they make -- even if Mandalay Bay isn't Pacquiao-full or Pacquiao-loud.
Since both men are southpaws, neither will have the advantage of awkwardness. This fight probably will come down to Williams' somewhat-ineffective aggressiveness outpointing Wright's defense and clean punching. That's my guess, anyway. I'll take Williams: SD-12.
Bart Barry can be reached at bbarry@15rounds.com
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