Catching a lucky break on the 18th hole where it appeared Winky Wright’s ball would land in the water before the green, the ball instead bounced off a rock and landed on the green, rolling within a few feet of the hole, showing that even a former champion could use a little luck sometime.
Wright, a former undisputed junior middleweight champion, has been a part of numerous major fights in Las Vegas, so competing in the 2014 Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational (MJCI) in Las Vegas last weekend wasn’t that big of a deal for the 42-year-old.
“This (MJCI) is different. This is a great event, but a fight is totally different,” Wright explained. “The fight is all about the fighters, one or two competitors, you got 18 different golfers out here so it is a lot different.”
Wright enjoys taking part in the annual tournament that has been held in Las Vegas for the past several years, as he can enjoy himself and not have to worry about being on a strict game plan as he was during his fighting days.
“Boxing is strict where you can’t do anything,” Wright said when asked to compare boxing to golf. “With boxing you got to watch what you eat, watch your weight, watch what you do, and in golf I can go out and do this and do that and still golf. It’s about honing down your swing and come out here and hitting the ball.”
In Wright’s prime he put together an impressive list of fighters he defeated in their prime (including: Shane Mosley, Felix Trinidad and Ike Quartey) something that is rare nowadays in the sport with the promotional/network Cold War going on. In order to get boxing back on the stage that it once was, Wright said it’s a must that the two sides make up so the biggest fights can be made.
“Oh man, in boxing the only way networks are going to get it right is stop letting fighters pick and choose who they are going to fight,” Wright said of the promotional issues. “You got to put the best fighters against the best fighters, and then more fans will watch it.”
Another hot topic in boxing is the continued issues with unfair scoring of bouts by various judges. Making sure the boxers and not the officials dictate the outcome of the bout is also a major problem the sport must work on.
“Then they got to stop letting these judges scoring these fights that people know they didn’t win, because you know they give them the fight, so that pushes a lot of people away from boxing. If they can do that I think boxing will become what it used to be.”
A bout that caused the most uproar in recent memory is the split-decision victory awarded to Timothy Bradley in 2012 over Manny Pacquiao, with the two set to rematch and settle the score this weekend, Wright had an opinion of who would win.
“I like both of them. I like Bradley he is a sharp fighter, but I think Pacquiao is a little monster,” Wright said.
Looking ahead to the May 3 showdown between Floyd Mayweather and Marcos Maidana, Wright said he wouldn’t put any money on Maidana pulling off the upset, despite there always being a punchers chance.
“Well this is boxing and every fighter has a chance, but I wouldn’t bet on it,” Wright said of the Mayweather-Maidana showdown. “I think Mayweather is too slick, too smart, so Mayweather is not going to fight him like [Adrien] Broner fought him. Mayweather is going to stick and move and he’s not going to stand there. Mayweather knows he can hit him and pick him off, so that will stop Maidana from coming in and trying to hurt him.”
