By Johnny Ortiz

This Saturday night, June 17th, Ronald "Winky" Wright, the former Jr. Middleweight World Champion will be fighting his third fight at the middleweight level when he attempts to win the WBC/WBA/WBO Middleweight title from current champion, Jermain Taylor. The fight will be held at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee, after the fight was announced, Jermain Taylor opened at 2-1 to win the fight, a week before the fight he is still holding as the 2-1 betting favorite.

The majority of the people I have talked with are of the opinion that Winky Wright will emerge as the new undisputed middleweight champion...I am not one of them. A few polls I have read have Winky winning a twelve round decision, I am picking Jermain Taylor to win, if Winky had fought Jermain before he went twenty-four rounds with Bernard Hopkins, I would have given him a better chance of winning.

Although Winky has a twenty-eight edge in professional fights, you can throw that edge out the window, having gone the distance with a Master Fighter such as Bernard Hopkins twice, is an experience that cannot be bought or taught, it has to be experienced. Even though I thought Bernard won both fights, the first one was very close, the second, I had Bernard winning by two points, the very invaluable lessons Jermain gained from those two encounters have gone on to make Jermain Taylor a much better all-around fighter. To put it in perspective, it is the equivalent of a young actor working numerous hours on a film with Marlon Brando, by the end of the movie, that young actor will have learned what acting is all about from working with a Master Actor such as Brando.

So it is with Jermain Taylor, he will take what he learned from Bernard and put it to good use against Winky Wright. I am going to put it in writing why I think Jermain Taylor will beat Winky Wright, first off, Jermain is a big, natural middleweight, he is only twenty-seven years old, while Winky rings in at thirty-four years of age. It is, and always will be a young man’s sport, there are of course exceptions, such as Bernard, Sam Langford, Jersey Joe Walcott, Archie Moore, etc. etc. Thirty-four is not old by any means, but twenty-seven is better, I’ve been both, I felt a lot better and stronger at twenty-seven than I did in my middle thirties. Jermain should not have to worry about Winky’s power, it is the one thing lacking in Winky’s profile.

His last six opponents have all gone the twelve round distance with him, if Winky cannot take out guys like Sam Soliman, Angel Hernandez and Juan Carlos Candelo, he sure as hell is not going to take out a guy who in his last two fights went twenty-four rounds with a solid puncher like Bernard Hopkins. The big factor still remains that Winky, having fought all of his fights as a Jr. Middleweight except for his last two bouts, still has the frame of a Jr. Middleweight, he is by no means, a full-fledged middleweight such as Taylor.

Winky will come in at the middleweight limit of 160 pounds and maybe a few pounds more come fight time, but Winky’s main asset is his mobility, added weight can diminish some of it. Jermain is a very good puncher who has registered 17 KO’s in his twenty-five wins, he has a killer left jab that I am looking for him to use to set up his combinations and power shots. Not having fear of your opponent’s power can work for a fighter in various ways, he can take more chances, he can try to draw the other guy into exchanges, and he can be the aggressor from start to finish.

Jermain must respect Winky, he is one of the great defensive fighters of his time, he has to be careful of Winky’s counterpunches, he must remember that even a fighter without a big punch can hurt you if his punch lands on a certain spot at the right time, case in point: Michael Nunn, who was not considered a big puncher, knocked out Sumbu Kalambay in the first round of their IBF Middleweight championship fight in Las Vegas, Michael hit him on the button.

Jermain must fight with confidence, he is after all, the champion. He must fight with intelligence and concentration, Winky’s been fighting for sixteen years, Jermain was only eleven years old when Winky had his first pro fight on October 16, 1990, like Bernard, Winky has learned all the tricks of the sport, Jermain will have to be at his best to beat him. So on Jermain’s side, here’s what you have: Youth, Size, Strength and the holder of the undisputed middleweight title. I like Winky Wright, I have the utmost respect for him both as a person and as a fighter. It is a shame that it took so long for him to get his chance to compete in world-class fights.

If he could punch, he would be damn near unbeatable, but being the great champion that he was as a Jr. middleweight, he has more than made up for his lack of power with ring intelligence, a great defense, mobility, and fast combinations. The middleweight division has always been a favorite of mine, it is where boxer-punchers have long lived, at thirty-four, I just think Winky does not fit the mold of a big, hard-punching middleweight. On the other hand, Jermain Taylor fits the mold to a T.

The one thing I have a problem with is Winky’s last fight against previously unheralded, Sam Soliman, much has been made of Winky’s poor showing against a mediocre opponent, that he had been ill with the flu leading up to the fight. As far as I am concerned, Winky broke one of boxing’s cardinal rules when he chose to fight his second middleweight fight not being 100%, how in the world could his manager, Chris Lighty, and trainer, Dan Birmingham, allow Winky to get into a ring without being medically sound? If Sam could punch, Winky might have been beaten.

Another thing, a lot has been made of his fight with Fernando Vargas, some people think Winky got jobbed, that he was on the wrong end of the decision. The scores were 112-116, 113-115, 114-114 in Fernando’s favor. I watched the fight, I scored it, I had the fight even going into the last round, Fernando, being the consummate pro that he is, won the twelfth round big, therefore deserving the win.

The Trinidad-Wright fight is still a mystery to me, Tito landing only 53 punches in a 12 round fight? I don’t know who that impostor was, but it sure as hell was not Felix Trinidad...not the Felix Trinidad I once knew. But then, two days later, and ten million dollars richer...Tito announced his retirement. Oh-Hum!

I picked Winky to beat Shane Mosley both times they fought. The reason? I never thought that Shane was a true jr. middleweight, just as I think that Winky is not a true middleweight. Having Emmanuel Stewart in his corner is a big plus for Jermain, knowing Emmanuel, he will have Jermain ready to fight the smaller Wright. I particulary like what Emmanuel had to say: "I know I want to help Jermain get this victory, at the very least I can say that Jermain Taylor is one of the most talented fighters I’ve ever worked with." Win, lose or draw, at twenty-seven, Jermain Taylor can only get better with each fight, Winky at thirty-four is as good as he will ever be.

Taylor-Wright is going to be a very interesting fight, one that you should not miss. There you have it, I could be proven wrong, but I don’t think so, in four of the last big fights, I picked Bernard Hopkins to beat Antonio Tarver big, Oscar to KO Ricardo Mayorga, Joe Calzaghe to beat Jeff Lacy and Wladimir Klitschko to beat Samuel Peter. I will add another this Saturday night.

The Taylor-Wright fight as well as Hopkins-Tarver can be seen on HBO June 17th.

Johnny Ortiz is a member of the World Boxing Hall of Fame Board Directors, a member of the Golden State Boxers Association Board of Directors, a media advisor for Thompson Boxing Promotions and a former co-owner of the famous, legendary Main St. Gym.