12.05.05 – By Barry Thompson: This is one of those fights that will elicit the bias of favorites, Winky Wright fans will root for him with concern that he does fight the perfect fight and doesn’t get his head knocked off by being too cocky. Felix Trinidad fans will watch, hoping he does what he normally does, dominate, and that this is not a copy of what Hopkins did to Tito. This is a tough one to call folks.. Will it end in a blowout of Winky Wright by Felix Trinidad, or a boxing lesson for Felix by Winky? I began to look at some (not all) of the advantages that each fighter has coming into this fight, and here they are:
Advantage to Winky Wright
Winky has never suffered a knockout and Tito has. Why is this significant? Because if Winky can duplicate the kind of neutralizing maneuvers that Bernard Hopkins performed against Tito, then Tito may suffer a “flashback” of the only time that he got knocked out, which may become a demoralizer, instilling panic and desperation, thus taking Tito out of his game plan (I’ve never seen him execute any strategy other than to attack), and rendering him with the following options: (a) Waiting for the big knockout punch; and (b) Waiting for the big knockout punch. Winky definitely has the skills to school Tito for twelve rounds, providing he does not even think about doing what he did with Sugar Shane Moseley, offer his chin.
Advantage to Tito Trinidad:
Felix has knocked out all but eight of his 43 opponents. He has only suffered one loss (two if you count De La Hoya), In other words: He KNOWS that, more likely than not, he can knock a man out! I really do not place much stock in what he did to Mayorga due to Mayorga having to jump up two weight classes and that he, although very strong and gutsy, lacks general defensive skills, however, the fight was an awesome confidence builder and based upon what Mayorga did to a skilled boxer like Vernon Forrest, it looked impressive, and got the crowd to cheer his return to boxing with an awesome display of brutality, punctuated with a knockout, thus reaffirming his position as the “Assassin”.
The more I examine this match up, the less I can call this fight. It just depends on who is able to assert their will upon the other, establish their pace, and maintain it. I felt the confidence of Winky at the press conference and realize that he can draw energy from the jeers of Tito fans because of his time spent as the unknown that has been avoided for so many years. I suspect Tito will be drawing energy from his fans, but it could backfire if his performance is neutralized by Winky’s superb defensive skills. Will it be another lesson like the one with Sugar Shane Moseley, which will confirm the reason why no one wanted to fight Winky, or will it be a blowout by Tito, which will reaffirm his legendary status? Well folks, we’ll all find out in about 40 hours.
PS: I bet Bernard Hopkins will be rooting for Tito, because style wise, Winky is definitely not a one trick pony.