by James Slater – After he was widely out-pointed and beaten by Paul “The Punisher” Williams back in April of this year, Winky Wright attributed his long layoff and William’s almost freakish advantage in reach as big factors in his defeat. And though he’d suffered the most comprehensive loss of his fine career, the 37-year-old said he was not done, and that he would make sure he kept himself active in the future so as to avoid further setbacks..
Wright has yet to fight since the Williams loss, but he has been keeping his eye out for a big fight at middleweight. According to Ring on line, Wright may have found such a big fight. The Bible of Boxing’s web site reports how Golden Boy Promotions is in talks with the handlers of WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm with regards to a fight with Wright. The plan is for Sturm and Wright to meet in Germany, either this year or early next.
“Winky made it clear he’d go to Germany,” Richard Schaefer told Ring on line. “I’ve already had conversations with Universum and we’re scheduled to have further discussions this week. We’ll see if we can pull it off. Winky reminded me that he fought many times in Europe. He has a well-known name internationally as well as in the US.”
As badly as he was beaten by Williams last time out, Wright would have to be given a good chance against 30-year-old Sturm; especially when we consider how less than impressive the German looked this past Saturday night in controversially out-scoring Khoren Gevor in a fight many people felt the challenger won.
Despite being the older man by seven years and winless in his last two outings, Wright could well put on a clinic against Sturm; crafty veteran that he is. Still, the WBA boss wouldn’t be expected to go quietly, and he has successfully defended his title seven times in his second reign. A fight against Wright, though, would surely be an entirely different proposition for Sturm than his fights with the likes of Randy Griffin, Sebastian Sylvester, Koji Sato and Gevor were.
However, as interesting as a possible Sturm-Wright fight is, the other fight Winky is also looking at is even more so. According to Schaefer – again talking to Ring on line – Wright has also spoken to him about the possibility of a fight against world middleweight king Kelly Pavlik.
“Winky made it clear to me he’s interested as well in fighting Pavlik,” Schaefer said. “His first choice is Sturm, though.”
Though both fights are intriguing, most fans would list Wright against the murderous-punching “Ghost” as their first choice from the two possibilities.