Ronald
"Winky" Wright
IBF champion
Felix Trinidad's jump to the middleweight
division left the IBF light middleweight title vacant. Wright scored
a unanimous decision over Robert Frazier on October 12, 2001 to win
the vacant title. In his first defense on February 2, 2002, Wright
stopped Jason Papillion in the fifth round. He took a third fight
against Bronco McKart, which ended in controversy as the referee disqualified
McKart for repeated low blows in the 8th round.
For Wright's
next fight, Oscar De La Hoya offered to fight him. However, because
of the lack of money The Golden Boy was willing to give Wright
for the fight, the deal fell through and Oscar fought Luis Ramon Campas
for the WBA/WBC titles. Wright went on to debut on National Television
Las Vegas against Juan Carlos Candelo on March 1, 2003 in a title
defense, winning a unanimous decision. He followed that up with another
blowout victory over Angel Hernandez 8 months later.
Wright vs.
Mosley I & II
To the surprise of many, including Wright, Shane
Mosley challenged Winky to a light middleweight unification title
fight on March 13, 2004. Mosley was a celebrated fighter coming off
his second win against Oscar De La Hoya and was looking for a tune-up
fight to prepare for a super fight with Felix Trinidad. Shane had
stated that he wanted to fight the winner of the fight between Wright
and Angel Hernandez. Wright, being the winner, earned a fight with
Shane Mosley. Wright was a 4 to 1 underdog against Mosley. During
the fight, Wright pressed his will early on and discouraged Mosley
with his size, effective jabbing and defense. Winky won a lopsided
unanimous decision, unifying his IBF title with Mosley's Lineal/The
Ring/WBC/WBA titles, to become undisputed light middleweight champion.
The
rematch took place on November 20, 2004. This fight was much closer
because Winky deliberately gave away some of the rounds and even dropped
his hands in one round, in order to show that Mosley couldn't hurt
him. Two judges scored 115-113 for Wright and one judge scored the
bout a draw. Wright was awarded the majority decision, which despite
Wright blatantly giving away a few of the rounds, was still a decisive
victory in his favor. Soon after, Wright would vacate his titles to
move up to the middlewieght division to challenge Felix Trinidad.
Wright
vs. Trinidad
On May 14, 2005, with Wright once again playing the underdog
role, he easily defeated Felix Trinidad by unanimous decision. Wright
credits this fight as his greatest achievement in his career as he
earned the respect and fan base of many that Felix Trinidad had behind
him.
