AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH WINKY WRIGHT By Elisa Harrison/Chris Robinson

Ronald "Winky" Wright is a talented southpaw fighter who brings both grit and flash to the ring. He has a good beard, and has never been stopped despite being in with some tough contenders.

Winky has taken on all comers, has traveled into other fighters' backyards and has been dealt more than one questionable decision in the process. His lack of exposure has limited him from sharing the spotlight with the likes of Vargas, Mosley and Oscar de la Hoya, but the IBF Junior Middleweight champion has now teamed up with Roy Jones Jr.'s Square Ring Promotions, and he is convinced that proper recognition and fair compensation will come his way real soon.

We met up with the articulate and winsome champion a couple of weeks ago and this is what we talked about...

BRC: Regarding your upcoming fight with Jason Papillion, you two have someone in common...Bronco McKart.

WINKY: Yeah. Bronco McKart is a good fighter, a lot of people won't fight him. Unfortunately, I had to keep fighting him and I beat him. He beat Papillon, his only two losses are to me.

BRC: How would you feel about a round robin, a tournament similar to the one that unified the middleweight division, between say, Fernando Vargas, Shane Mosley, Oscar De la Hoya, and yourself?

WINKY: This is what I was hoping they would do. HBO asked me to fight Shane Mosley but they didn't want to pay me the money that I felt was sufficient enough to fight a Shane Mosley. So, if they want us to fight Shane Mosley, like you said, do a round robin between Mosley, Vargas, De la Hoya, me, and the winner, just like with the middleweights, takes all the titles. That way everybody gets paid for every fight.

**(At the time of this interview Shane Mosley had not been defeated by Vernon Forrest).

BRC: Do you feel that you beat Fernando Vargas?

WINKY: Oh, yes, I KNOW I beat him! I know I beat Vargas, ain't no way in the world he beat me that night. I beat him and he knows I beat him. I beat him with one hand, basically.

BRC: Would you like to fight Vargas again?

WINKY: I definitely wanna fight Vargas because I beat Vargas, you know, he got his little gift that time. I beat Vargas, but if they want me to fight Vargas again, I'll fight Vargas again. But, really, I want to fight Oscar De la Hoya because I feel he, right now, in that weight division, everybody expects De la Hoya to be the best, so I wanna fight the best. But, I want to fight Mosley too, because he beat De la Hoya and they think Mosley is so great. But, really, who has he beaten? De la Hoya, that's it. What other great fighter did he fight? Rivera, who didn't want to fight me...You know, a lot of fighters don't want to fight me so I don't get the chance to make that big name, big opportunity but it's cool, it will come.

BRC: Do you feel that Vargas is a different fighter since he lost to Tito Trinidad?

WINKY: I think that Trinidad definitely exposed that Vargas can be knocked out but, like I said, I already knew that. I was hurting Vargas when we fought, only I fought Vargas with one hand. I hurt my hand prior to that fight but I wouldn't let anyone know because that was a big opportunity for me and I didn't say anything the night of the fight either because there was no need for that.

The people saw who won the fight, even though the judges and HBO, whatever, they had it in for him and Ike Quartey to fight, but, you know I know I beat him and he knows I beat him, so yeah...He's saying that he wants to fight me again and I'm saying I wanna fight him again. I hope the public gets behind it and say, well, if both of them wanna fight each other, what's stopping them? Is it the promoters? Who is stopping them? I'll fight him, but just pay me, don't offer me a little bit of money, then offer someone else a whole lot.

BRC: Let's clear something up... You stated -if I understood you correctly- that when you became the #1 challenger, Tito Trinidad moved up. Were you implying that Trinidad didn't want to fight you?

WINKY: That was an implication that maybe Don King didn't want him to fight me. But, once again, I would love to fight Tito right now, that's my opportunity to get my big fight, get my name out there. I don't want to keep fighting fighters with no name, then when I beat him they say, yeah, you beat him but who is he? Well, I have to keep beating these people 'cause the people with the big name don't wanna fight me.

Trinidad had an opportunity to fight me if he had wanted to fight me, so it had something to do with his camp, whoever, the whole group didn't want to fight me, put it that way. He could have taken that fight and then...Why move up to middleweight? The money was at the junior middleweight class, money wasn't at the middleweight...Trinidad made that whole thing worth money. Who did they have? Bernard Hopkins, William Joppy, Keith Holmes...What money were they making? $500,000, $600,000? So, money was there, with me, Vargas, him (Trinidad) ...So I feel that they didn't want to fight me. But, that's a business move and I don't blame him. Do what they gotta do, but I wanna fight De la Hoya, I wanna fight Vargas, I wanna fight Trinidad and I wanna fight Shane Mosley, and I wanna fight them soon. I don't wanna wait three or four years to fight all these people. If I'm winning and HBO wanna pay me, I'll fight all of them, back to back.

See, that's how "Sugar" Ray and them did it... If you lose, so what? Come back and fight again, that's what made them great fighters. You can't become a great fighter, you fight one person, one time and you win the decision and then, that's it, you don't wanna fight no more. You were the better man that night, give him another chance. Let's really show who are the best fighters out there; some of these fighters, like I said, are scared to get a loss or scared just to fight somebody with the same skills they got. If you call yourself the best, fight people who are at your same level with the same skills you got and don't just fight them once, fight them twice, fight them whatever...How many times the public wants to see them, however many times you all need to do it to prove you are the better fighter.

BRC: Winky, they can't deny you forever...

WINKY: THANK YOU! and I gotta keep doing what I'm doing. Let the fans know I'm with the round robin, I definitely belong and it should happen. Why won't it happen? The only reason why it won't happen is because someone don't wanna fight me, their promoter...they try so many tricks with the promoters...

BRC: (Rudely interrupting, sorry...) Are you happy with your promoter?

WINKY: Well, I'm with Roy, (Roy Jones Jr.), I just got with Roy, this will be my first fight with him. I was with Top Rank and Bob Arum but...I was happy with Bob Arum, but they wanted me to take the fight with Mosley for no money, and I was like, no, I ain't doing that. I've been fighting professional for about eleven years, so I wanna get paid. So, he (Arum) got mad that I didn't take the fight, we had a disagreement, and Roy Jones and his people stepped in and you know...

BRC: Are you happy with Prince?

WINKY: I'm happy with Prince and everything is going good. We are going to do some more marketing so we can get these big fights, it's time. The other fighters, they get more marketing than me...

BRC: Do you think the fans would like to see the round robin that we spoke of?

WINKY: Yeah, put it down. I think they wanna see it, I know I wanna see it. I know the fans would love to see me with, definitely Vargas, they definitely wanna see that, then you got De la Hoya... Like I said, you got me, Vargas, De la Hoya, then you can pull Trinidad back into it. That could be Trinidad or Shane Mosley, whoever they want to do it with. But what it is, is that they are going to try and get me out of it early but I ain't going for it. No bad decisions, I am hoping that I can fight on TV every time and the public is gonna see that if they try to rob me.

My losses all came in decisions, in world title fights. I got three losses in three world title fights in three decisions, all questionable decisions. Vargas, then overseas, how they did me, when I won the fight in the ring, they called it a draw, then I go to my dressing room and ten, fifteen minutes later they come to take my title. What is that? That's never happened before, but to me...That's again, I didn't have a big name, a big promoter, so they can do what they want to with me, and it's like, well, he ain't nobody, we'll just do what we want.

But, I wasn't bitter about it, I took it and kept going and came back to #1 again. So, they can't stop me, no matter what they do, I'm gonna do what I gotta do to become one of the best fighters in the world.

**For an interview with James Prince ~~~>