Winky Wright
| Winky Wright | |
|---|---|
| Statistics | |
| Real name | Ronald Lamont Wright |
| Nickname(s) | Winky |
| Rated at | |
| Height | 5 ft 10 1⁄2 in (179 cm) |
| Reach | 72 in (183 cm) |
| Nationality | American |
| Born |
November 26, 1971 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Stance | Southpaw |
| Boxing record | |
| Total fights | 58 |
| Wins | 51 |
| Wins by KO | 25 |
| Losses | 6 |
| Draws | 1 |
Ronald Lamont "Winky" Wright (born November 26, 1971) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1990 to 2012. He is a two-time light middleweight world champion and remains the last to hold the undisputed title at that weight. In his later career he also challenged for a unified middleweight world title. He announced his retirement from boxing in 2012, following a loss to Peter Quillin.
After his second-round knockout of Carlos Santana on July 30, 1992, in St. Petersburg, Florida, the ring announcer called him "Winky" Wright, the name given to him by his grandmother when he was 6 months old and that had unofficially stuck with him since he was 18 months old. The nickname stuck with him for the rest of his career following his win over Santana.
Big time promoters like Don King and Lou Duva would not promote Wright in the early part of his career. His first big time promoters were the French-based Acaries brothers, who struck a deal for Wright to fight Darryl Lattimore in Luxembourg on January 1, 1993. Wright knocked Lattimore down three times, and the fight was stopped. Wright went on a tear during his tour of Europe, winning 8 straight in France, Germany, Monte Carlo, only fighting in the United States once over the next year.
On August 21, 1994, Wright received his first title match against WBA light-middleweight champion Julio César Vásquez in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France. Although he was 25–0 at the time, Wright had not fought in a match that had gone more than 8 rounds. His inexperience showed as Winky lost a unanimous decision, with Vasquez knocking down Wright in the second, seventh and ninth rounds, as well as twice in the twelfth round (Wright also officially slipped 3 times during the fight and 4 times unofficially). However, the decision proved controversial, as Vasquez only won the fight on the knock-downs he scored (with Wright appearing to win every round (except the third round, which appeared to be even) that Vasquez didn't knock him down in) and that the knock-down (which was the first knock-down) in the second round was a controversial variation of a slip (the one unofficial slip in the fight), which would mean that if it wasn't controversially ruled a knock-down, Wright would've narrowly won the fight on the scorecards (on a one-point margin): 112-111.
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