Doghouse Boxing breaks down Trinidad vs. Wright
By Bobby Jones (May 11, 2005)  
Photo © HBO-PPV
This Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, Ronald ‘Winky’ Wright and Felix ‘Tito’ Trinidad will square off in one of the biggest mega fights of the year. Winky Wright is giving up his WBA and WBC light middleweight titles in order to move up to face Trinidad in a WBC title eliminator. The winner of this match will most likely challenge the winner of the fight between undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins and Jermain Taylor, which is scheduled for this summer. Wright vs. Trinidad is a classic match up between an all-elusive defensive fighter and a brutal power puncher.

St. Petersburg native Winky Wright, 48-3 (25), has only lost one fight decisively in his career—and that came nearly 11 years ago when he lost to then WBA light middleweight champion Julio Cesar Vasquez. Wright also lost disputable decisions against Harry Simon in 1998 and to Fernando Vargas in 1999. Since Wright’s majority decision loss to Vargas he has reeled off nine straight victories, two of those against Oscar De La Hoya conqueror, Shane Mosley. Wright, since those back-to-back victories against Mosley, has come into the boxing public view but has yet to break through as a major draw. Wright has one of the best defenses in the game. He constantly keeps his hands up and elbows in, allowing opponents to only hit bony elbows and soft gloves. Wright has only been down five times in his career. That may seem like a lot, but all those knockdowns happened during his loss to Vasquez in 1994. If you are a boxing purist you enjoy watching Wright’s masterful defense. Unfortunately for Wright, he doesn’t please the casual fan because he wins by out-boxing his opponent, not sprawling them on the canvas. Which brings us to Wright’s opponent this Saturday night.

Felix ‘Tito’ Trinidad, 42-1 (35), is one of the most fearsome punchers ever to lace up the gloves. Trinidad came back last November after a 29-month absence from the ring. A lot of boxing experts thought that Trinidad may be making a mistake by taking on Ricardo Mayorga, a hard puncher himself, with one of the best chins in the sport. Trinidad only needed a little less than eight rounds to prove his critics wrong by knocking out the former welterweight champion (their fight was at the middleweight level). Critics also believe that Tito might be making a mistake by taking on Winky Wright in only his second fight back after his long layoff.

Trinidad has been on the mat six times in his career, but each time—except in his loss to Hopkins—has bounced right back up and won the fight. Trinidad, as it seems apparent, fights better after being knocked down, and those knockdowns possibly provide him with extra motivation to fire back even harder at his unlucky opponent. Wright’s power isn’t a concern in this match for Trinidad; it’s trying to find a way to land one of his power shots and do damage.

Many boxing experts believe that Wright will lead Trinidad on a game of cat-and-mouse and win just enough rounds by using his defense to make Trinidad look silly and to win the fight.  Trinidad may have too much power for Wright, who has never fought above 157 pounds.  The fight may look a lot like the Diego Corrales vs. Acelino Freitas match, where Freitas made Corrales look amateurish for about six or seven rounds. Then Freitas tired and began to have no choice but to taste the power of Corrales, which eventually led Freitas to effectively cry ‘no mas’.  Wright will probably win most of the early rounds, but he can't hide all night, and it’s inevitable that Trinidad may land a huge blow late that either creates a knockdown that gives Trinidad a narrow decision win, or possibly even a knockout.

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