by Geoffrey Ciani – This past week’s edition of On the Ropes featured exclusive interviews with Winky Wright and Vivian Harris. Highlighting this episode was a nice conversation with former undisputed junior middleweight champion Ronald “Winky” Wright. Here are some excerpts from that interview:

Regarding the decision not to take a tune-up fight before facing Paul Williams:
“It definitely I’d say hurt me, but this is boxing. There’s a lot of fighters out there who are trying to protect their winning records and protect their undefeated record and all that kind of stuff, but me, I want to say I beat whoever they put in front of me. The problem that I had with Paul Williams was his height and with him throwing so many punches and me being off so long, my timing was off and everything was just going wrong that night, but I enjoyed the fight.”

On where he intends to campaign for the rest of his career:
“I see myself going back to 154. As you said, there are no real names at 160. You got (Kelly) Pavlik and (Felix) Sturm, and right now I can’t get a fight with either one of those guys. I’m not a big guy, anyway, I fight whoever wants to fight me and it’s just been that no guys my size really want to fight me..”

Regarding who he would most want to fight at 154:
“Right now I would have to say (Sergio) Martinez. He looked very good against Paul. I think he’s a very good slick boxer who’s smart. I think that would be a very good fight. Besides him, I really don’t know. Hopefully some of these welterweights will move up and the 154 pound weight division can get back to where it was when I ruled it.”

On getting his big break when Shane Mosley gave him the opportunity to fight him:
“I definitely applaud Shane for stepping up to the plate because a lot of fighters in his predicament wouldn’t have taken the fight. They would have stayed away to protect their records and fight an easier fighter. Shane felt that he was the best fighter out there in that weight class and he wanted to fight the best and he felt that I was that challenge for him. So I tip my hat off to him for that.”

Regarding his controversial draw with middleweight champion Jermain Taylor:
“First of all, the fight wasn’t as close as they said. Second of all, boxing is judged round by round. If you really watch that fight you will see that I won most of the rounds. Even if it is coming down to the last round and it’s close, okay, I didn’t do much but he didn’t do anything. See, they gave him the round not because of what he did. He absolutely did nothing in the twelfth round. At least I threw a few punches. I danced around and moved around. He threw a couple of jabs which missed clearly but he did nothing. Just because I didn’t do as much as I was doing you’re going to give him the round? Once again, that’s because that’s the favoritism of boxing. He was an HBO fighter, he was the guy that just dethroned Bernard Hopkins so he was the future.”

His thoughts on never getting the opportunity to fight Oscar De La Hoya:
“First of all, I think the fight didn’t happen because Oscar didn’t want to fight me. They felt my style, I was tough I was big, and he didn’t want to deal with it. He saw that I can box, I can slug, and he said ‘I don’t want to fight this guy’. They did whatever they had to do—they stayed away from me by any means necessary.”

Regarding his views on the proposed Olympic style drug testing in the failed negotiations for Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather:
“If I’m a fighter, and I’m abiding by the rules of boxing and everything is okay then just because another person tells me to do something else, I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to take some extra tests just because you say to do it. The rules are we can’t do this, we can’t do that, I’m passing all the rules, I’m taking all the drug tests that they ask me, I’m doing all of that then it’s okay. But by your standard, you want me to take extra tests? Why should I do that because you said it? You’re not going to do anything I tell you to do extra. So I don’t feel that I should have done it. Floyd’s my man, but I just feel that should have still made that fight.”

His feelings on a potential showdown between Floyd Mayweather and Sugar Shane Mosley:
“Do I think Shane can beat him? Yes, I think Shane can beat him. Shane’s got the speed to deal with him, Shane’s got the power to deal with him, and Shane’s a smart fighter. A lot of times Floyd may fight a fighter that’s fast but can’t punch, or a fighter that can punch but is not fast. So Shane got all of that, but Floyd is a very talented and smart fighter, so just because you got the skills to beat him, you still got to get in there and execute.”

How he feels a Pacquiao versus Mayweather fight would go down if it happens sometime this year:
“I cannot bet against Floyd because he’s undefeated. We’ve never seen anyone beat him, but at the same time, I got beat the last three times against Pacquiao just because I thought he was fighting guys much bigger and they would be able to control him and he showed me something different every time, so I can’t bet against Pacquiao anymore. I’m going to be a true fan, this is going to be a pick’em fight for me. I was looking forward to seeing two great fighters come to war.”

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Vivian Harris

We also had a good discussion with former WBA junior welterweight champion Vivian Harris. Here are some of the things Vivian had to say:

On the cancelation of his scheduled appearance on the undercard of Shane Mosley versus Andre Berto:
“Well, I was definitely excited about this weekend’s fight but the tragedy that happened in Haiti really burned a hole in the card, but my condolences and everything go out to the people in Haiti and to Berto.”

Regarding who he would most like to fight in the 140 pound weight class:
“My goal is to, after this fight, win this fight that I have coming up here and keep winning the fights until I get to Amir Khan because Amir Khan has my WBA belt and he doesn’t deserve that belt—that’s my belt.”

Regarding the injury he suffered due to a head butt in his last fight with Noe Bolanos:
“After the fight they took me to the doctor in Arizona and I did not have a concussion. Thank God I didn’t, God was with me that night.”

On what it was like winning the title from Diosbelys Hurtado:
“It was great. That’s the dream I had since I was a little kid, to become champion of the world. I have a dream to become undisputed at one time, so it was a great moment and it’s a moment that I will relive again when I become champion again.”

On what he considers to be the most difficult moment of his professional career:
“The most difficult moment inside the ring is when I lost my championship. The fight was a real bad fight. I got head butted, I got cut, I got hit when I was on the floor. That was the most difficult moment in my whole boxing career.”

Regarding the collapse of negotiations between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Junior as it pertained to steroid testing:
“We all know Floyd is a very protected fighter who does what’s best for him, and you can’t knock a man for that. I think if Pacquiao doesn’t have anything to hide—and I’m not accusing him of anything, I think he’s a great fighter who works hard and trains hard—but I think if you don’t have anything to hide then take the test. For the fans that want to see a great fight like that, it doesn’t many any sense to me.”

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If you missed last week’s special edition of On the Ropes, be sure to tune in and listen now!

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