11.12.05 – By Joseph Carlo Russo @ Ringside – With Wright’s name being quite coincidentally suitable with his most notable punch, his right jab, Winky has made his name in the sport of boxing with his masterfully technical style that has proven itself elite when he dissected “Sugar” Shane Mosley and decimated Felix “Tito” Trinidad. His style, though masterful and elite, unfortunately has failed to gain the much deserving Ronald “Winky” Wright the superstar power equivalent to that of some of his victims due to its un-crowd-satisfying manner.. But, Emmanuel Steward who has proven himself worthy of predictions in the past Wright/Soliman to be more than what most boxing analysts expected considering the golden rule “styles make fights.” Indeed it was.
Having realized that coverage in The United States at the level when fighting Winky Wright was scarce for the 31-7 Aussie, Sam Soliman knew exactly what he had to do to win the boxing fans and perhaps the judges over. In the first round Sam “King” Soliman came out like a spark plug with his unorthodox, sloppy style, throwing punches from every which angle at every which moment to take the first round on my scorecard. Soliman continued his attempted onslaught into the second round, appearing to have gassed himself as Winky begun his work landing crisp straight lefts, and a right hook-straight left combo at the end of the 2nd that nearly stunned Soliman.
In the third, Soliman continued his waltz, expending more and more energy as his meter appeared to be running short, also in part due to the few good right hooks that Winky connected to his body. At the final seconds of round four Wright landed three straight lefts in a row to get the crowd into it, sending the fourth round out with a bang, as Winky exhibited beautiful counter-punching, winning him his third round on my scorecard.
Round five saw Soliman backpedaling as Winky continued to stalk him with his jab and counter punches. Wright appeared to be getting noticeably stronger as the fight progressed into round six as he put more fire behind his punches, perhaps sensing a possible knockout.
In the seventh round, Winky started to work his jab a bit more, though still less than I had expected, as he landed some good clean counter right hooks and straight lefts as Soliman kept his hands low. Soliman became more effectively aggressive in round eight with some good connects to win himself his second round of the fight on my scorecard. But, Wright quickly redeemed himself in round nine as he landed excellent combinations midway through the round that knocked the tough Aussie to the ropes.
In perhaps the most exciting round of the fight, Wright landed a textbook straight left that wobbled Soliman around the ring and to the ropes. Winky then landed some of best punches of the fight almost knocking the iron-jawed Soliman down as Winky showed aggression scarcely demonstrated in his previous fights.
In rounds eleven and twelve, Wright landed some hard straight lefts, but didn’t follow up much as Soliman was more the aggressor. The fight ended with the crowd on its feet as the two road warriors went toe to toe in the last ten seconds with Wright getting the better of the exchange.
In closing, I scored the fight 116-112 for Ronald “Winky” Wright. Wright landed more punches at a higher percentage as compubox numbers showed Winky landing 300 punches at 46% to Soliman’s 174 at 17%.
Other action at the Mohegan Sun was quite dull. With Chad Dawson’s bout having been cancelled Wright/Soliman was the only meaningful fight of the night, and the only exciting one at that.
Rico Hoye scored a unanimous decision over Derrick Whitley as the crowd booed the verdict. Super middleweights Carlos De Leon Jr. and Ted Muller fought to a draw. Heavyweight Tony Grano scored a knockout moving his record to 2-0 via right hook to the body over Tim Gulley who looked significantly undersized.
In an eventful bout Lacy/Wright stablemate “AK-47” Akinyemi Laleye of Nigeria won a hard fought split decision over tough Philly fighter Louis Robinson as both came into the bout unbeaten at 2-0. Super Welterweight Jose Rodriguez of New York City advanced his record to 3-0 with a unanimous decision over Anthony Abrams. And heavyweight Sherman Williams moved to 26-11-2 with a unanimous decision over 9-10 Willy Perryman.
In additional swing fight action, super bantamweight Mike Oliver of Hartford Connecticut won a decision over Gilberto Bolanos to improve to 11-0, and Anthony Russell won a unanimous decision over William Bailey to advance his record to 11-1-1.