Current Issue: August 2005

BECOMING THE MAN

One by one, Winky Wright has been bumping off boxing’s big names, slowly becoming a major star himself. Now his hitlist has been narrowed down to just one — the Golden Boy himself, Oscar De La Hoya. STEVE FARHOOD reports

This Tito fight changed it. The Mosley fights I got a lot more fans, but the Tito fight blew it out of proportion. People are just like: 'You're the best.' - Get Big Pic

BM: The cheers you received when announced at the Hatton-Tszyu fight in Manchester were louder than those for Chico Corrales and Jeff Lacy. Do you think the fans remembered your fights in the UK?

WW: I think they did. They remember because I beat all their fighters. It felt great. To get that kind of applause — I haven’t been over there in a long time. For them to still appreciate me like that, it was great.

BM: It’s ironic: You got a bigger reception in England than you might in your own country.

WW: This Tito fight changed it. The Mosley fights I got a lot more fans, but the Tito fight blew it out of proportion. People are just, like: "You’re the best." When I beat Shane, it was: "You’re good, you’re good." But after Tito, it was: "You’re the best." It’s crazy.

BM: Give me an example of a reaction to the Trinidad fight that surprised you.

WW: I went to the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York. You know a lot of the Puerto Ricans love Tito. But when I came there, the fans were going crazy. They wanted to take pictures and everything. They said: "You know Tito’s our man, but we gotta give it to you. You did a great job. I’m a fan of yours now."

BM: When Mosley beat Oscar De La Hoya, it was said that just because he beat The Man, that didn’t make him The Man. You beat Trinidad, who was at least one of The Men. Are you now The Man? Or do you have a ways to go?

WW: I feel it makes me The Man because I’m the one out there wanting to fight the rest and they don’t want to fight me. And also it’s the way I beat Tito. It wasn’t where it was close. I just dominated who they thought was The Man. It was a complete domination. I feel I don’t need to go chase them anymore. People know who I am now. It’s just about getting the fights now. If they want to fight me, I’m here. If they don’t, I’m good, I’m gonna move on and make my money. From the fans’ point of view, I’d love to get the other big-name fighters. But if they don’t want to do it, I can’t make them.

BM: No one, including you, thought the Trinidad fight would be as one-sided as it turned out to be. Tell me what you thought going in and how that was different from what it was like in the ring.

WW: I thought he’d come straight at me, throwing a lot of big punches. When I first met him in the centre of the ring, I said I’m gonna meet him there, and if he throws a lot of punches, I’m gonna be there to catch them and counterpunch. I noticed that no one had ever counterpunched Tito. They let him punch and they ran. They were scared of his power. I thought that maybe if he throws punches and somebody comes right back, he wouldn’t be used to it. But when I got to the centre of the ring, he was moving away from me. I knew he wasn’t trying to box me. That’s when I started with my jab. If I start getting my jab connected against anyone, it’s over.

BM: You were the one moving up in weight and he was the bigger puncher, so that plan was pretty ballsy, no?

WW: I train with bigger fighters, (Antonio) Tarver, (Jeff) Lacy. None of them ever hurt me, so I knew Tito wasn’t going to. Everybody was telling me: "You crazy? Tito’s knocking everybody out." I said: "Okay, cool." Then people asked me if I had seen tapes of Tito. I said: "No." I’d seen him fight. What did I need tapes for? De La Hoya and Hopkins don’t fight like me. It wouldn’t have done me any good.

BM: Trinidad was criticised for not having a Plan B. I didn’t think he had much of a Plan A.

WW: His plan was to come out early and see how strong I was gonna be. When I hit him with the first jab, he saw how strong and quick I was and he just couldn’t get away from it. And every time he dipped in to throw his big shots, I blocked and countered. He was in a Catch-22. He didn’t know what to do.

BM: Do you think he was arrogant? Did he believe he was going to win no matter what?

WW: Definitely. Definitely. He was a good guy the whole promotion; we were both respectful to each other. But I knew he thought I was moving up from 154 and I was never a big puncher. He thought he was gonna be able to come in, walk right through me, hit me with a couple of shots, and knock me out. He kept saying the whole press tour: "I’m gonna knock him out." And I kept telling him: "It ain’t gonna happen. No one’s ever knocked me out and you ain’t gonna do it." He knew what he wanted to do, but he didn’t know how to go about doing it.

BM: Tito was your sixth consecutive decision win. Are you hungry for a KO or does that not matter to you?

WW: Not for me. It don’t matter. If I had wanted to knock Tito out, I could’ve put more pressure on him. But I enjoyed just boxing him. You ain’t never seen a fight where a fighter didn’t get hit 60 punches over 12 rounds. That was crazy. I told reporters the night before that I was gonna go out there and win every round, round by round. And I did.

BM: Does the lack of KOs partly explain why you’re at the top of the pound-for-pound ratings, but not all that widely known?

WW: I don’t think that anymore. I am widely known. I already had Europe. It was just coming back to America and fighting the fighters America thought were the best pound-for-pound. And I could never get that chance. Now that I beat two of the pound-for-pound fighters, I’m gonna have a big following. It’s just all about getting the fights. From what I did to Tito, people are saying: "You’re a great boxer." It’s great to hear people acknowledging my skills. That’s what I like.

BM: You’ve waited a long time to become a million-dollar fighter. Now you’re a multi-million dollar fighter. What will allow you to keep your motivation and not get full of yourself?

WW: Just what you said — it took me a long time. People forget I was a world champion back in, what, ’95? (Wright won the WBO junior middleweight title in May 1996.) I experienced being a world champion and making the money, and I experienced getting robbed and not making the money. I know how it feels when it’s not coming the way you think it should come. I told myself that if I ever got back on top, I’d learn to appreciate it. Yeah, I love the money and I want to make as much as I can, but I’m grounded.

BM: If De La Hoya were willing to fight you at junior middleweight, would you drop back down to 154 pounds?

WW: Definitely. Most definitely. As long as the money’s right. I’ve always been a fighter who’s had to take the low end of the budget, not getting what I want. I still think Oscar should get more than me, but you’re gonna pay me what I want now. No more: "You gotta take this or that’s that." If that’s that, then bye, I’ll go somewhere else.

BM: You made about $4 million for Trinidad?

WW: No. We took a guarantee of 2.5 (million), with a piece of the pay-per-view, so I ended up making more than four.

BM: So if you made more than $4 million, I can presume you’re going to want more than that for Oscar.

WW: Oh, I’m gonna want way more than that (laughs). That ain’t even half of it. I want to get paid right. Oscar is Oscar, but he’s been losing, losing, losing. People ain’t gonna want to keep giving Oscar all this money to fight bums, so Oscar ain’t gonna be able to make all this money. If he needs somebody who can generate the money … I beat Tito, I beat Shane. Winky Wright can bring pay-per-view, as they saw. Tito and (Ricardo) Mayorga didn’t do near what Tito and me did, and they didn’t even do that big a marketing campaign for us.

BM: Looking back for a moment … You’re such a good defensive fighter. How on earth did Julio Cesar Vazquez knock you down five times (in a 1994 title fight in France, won by Vazquez)?

WW: I dominated Julio Cesar Vazquez. The bottoms of my shoes had worn down, so I got new bottoms and they weren’t good for the ring. When the ring got wet, I kept slipping. And they called them knockdowns. The second round I dropped him and they called it a slip. And then he didn’t touch me at all; I turned around and slipped and they called it a knockdown. In the fifth round I slipped on the water in my corner and they gave him another knockdown. He never hit me on my jaw and knocked me down. In the 12th round he pushed my gloves with a jab and I was so tired, I went down.

BM: How good a fighter was Harry Simon (who defeated Wright by majority decision in a 1998 title fight in South Africa)?

WW: Harry Simon was an alright fighter, but the first two rounds, I was tearing him up to the body. They kept telling me I was throwing low blows. So Dan [Birmingham, Wright’s trainer] told me I couldn’t go to the body because they’d disqualify me. (Simon) just ran in and threw punches and I was moving around. From about rounds three to eight it was a good fight because we were both throwing a lot of punches. From 10 to 12, I got back on the outside and danced and boxed him because he couldn’t box with me. I won the fight. They called it a draw. I took pictures in the ring for about five minutes. Then they changed the decision. Lennox Lewis-Holyfield (first fight) was one of the worst decision ever and they didn’t change that decision.

BM: Who would you say is the best fighter you’ve fought so far?

WW: The best fighter I fought so far … (pauses) I like Shane (Mosley) because he was quick with his punches and awkward … Toughest fighter … If you really look at my fights, I’ve dominated all my fights. If you go 12 rounds, I’m winning nine, 10 out of 12.

BM: You’re 33. Do you look at yourself as being in the twilight of your career? Or are you just getting started?

WW: I feel I got a lot more to give. It’s just keeping myself wanting it because if nobody wants to fight me ... I’ve already made the money, so what’s the use of staying here? I’m not one of these fighters that needs to box. I love to box, but if it ain’t there no more, I can leave. I can enjoy watching. I can be a spectator. Know what I’m saying?

 Next issue on sale:
25th August 2005