30.01.04 – IBF jr. middleweight champion WINKY WRIGHT will leave his home training base in St. Petersburg, FL today for Houston, TX, where he will begin phase two of his intense preparations for the biggest fight ever in the 154-Pound division, against WBC/WBA super welterweight champion SUGAR SHANE MOSLEY. The historic world title fight, which will determine the division’s first-ever three-belt undisputed world champion, is scheduled for Saturday, March 13, 2004, at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, NV, and will be televised live nationally on HBO, beginning at 9:30 P.M. ET / 6:30 P.M. PT.
“My trainer Dan Birmingham and I decided to take every measure possible to be ready for Sugar Shane … no distractions,” said Wright. “I won’t be satisified with just a victory. I want this fight to be a career-defining statement that not only is Winky Wright the undisputed champion, but the best pound-for-pound champion too. The beating I gave Fernando Vargas will be nothing compared to what I will be bringing to Sugar Shane.”
Wright will be attending the Super Bowl this Sunday, where he has already predicted that Carolina will be victorious. “I think Carolina will win 12-0 — just like the score in rounds I will win against Mosley…if it goes that long,” said Wright.
Tickets for this exciting evening of boxing, promoted by Gary Shaw Productions, LLC, in association with Square Ring, Inc. and Budweiser, are priced at $600, $400, $200, $100 and $50, and are now on sale at the Mandalay Bay Theatre Box Office and all TicketMaster outlets. To order tickets by phone, call (702) 632-7580.
The last time the 154-pound division had an undisputed world champion was when Koichi Wajima reclaimed the title from Oscar Albarado via a 15-round decision, January 21, 1975, before the IBF was established, in Tokyo, Japan. Since then, the title has been splintered with only Terry Norris, Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya and now Mosley ever holding two of the three belts simultaneously.