Tito vs. Winky: King offers Wright a wrong amount
Submitted by Ric Solivan,
TainoBox.com (December 15, 2004) 
Photo © HoganPhotos.com
Gary Shaw advisor to undisputed junior middleweight champion Ronald “Winky” Wright has released the initial monetary offer extended to them by promoter Don King, an offer in the sum of three million dollars. Understandably Shaw and Wright feel this “minimum wage” offer is well below Winky’s market value and clearly outside of the scope of magnitude for the proposed event. This becomes especially unjust since “Winky” will move up to foreign territory in order to accommodate the 160lbs. requirement set by the Trinidad’s. To make matters worse according to Shaw, sources have informed him that Tito will reportedly pocket a sum in excess of ten million dollars, not including his customary cut of PPV and or gate revenue.

Ronald “Winky” Wright is pound for pound one of the best fighter’s in the world today and is coming off two shut out victories over former pound for pound king Shane Mosely, surely this must get him a figure better than 3 million. King who is one of the shrewdest negotiators around must realize that short of a Hopkins or Oscar rematch, the only true game in town is Winky Wright, a fight that Trinidad wants and the public is waiting for. We are hopeful that the “offer” which is being taken by some (including myself) as nothing more than an assessment figure from DKP, will hopefully translate to a more acceptable net sum in the coming weeks.

Hopefully King and co. will do the Wright thing here and grant the fans what they want, after all who else can top Wright at this moment in time? Felix Sturm’s people have openly stated they will not face Trinidad unless it is for a world title, so we can rule him out for the moment and Jermaine Taylor, who is an outstanding prospect (coming off a one sided beat down of glorified punching bag William Joppy) is still constrained enough by his training wheels to prevent him from being a compelling rival for Tito. Finally while we’re at it let’s openly denounce the mere mention of such names as Maselino Masoe, Keith Holmes or Ike Quartey as opponents for the pride of Cupey Alto, it must be clear that any opponent other than Wright, Oscar or Hopkins is not worthy of Pay Per View money nor Trinidad’s time.

No one can dispute Tito Trinidad’s popularity and standing in the boxing world, he has been one of a mere handful of marquee fighters in recent memory to take on all comers. This in spite of his scaling into the higher weight divisions, yes “Tito” deserves every penny of revenue that he gets from the spiked hair wonder and HBO. But one can’t help but to hope for Wright’s opportunity to come to pass since he much like a younger Tito has been swindled, overlooked and left in the shadows for years before getting a crack at the big boys. We have no doubt whatsoever that the Trinidad’s want this fight, they have openly admitted to it, so it all falls on Don King to make it happen, and I’m sure that the razor sharp promoter will find a way to offer Mr. Wright his just incentive/reward for taking on one of the most destructive forces in the history of boxing.

Another item to consider is the small window of promotional time left to successfully negotiate, much less plan and promote an event of this magnitude, March 19th (The date set aside by HBO) is not as far away as it may appear. Hopefully matters will be resolved and King gives “Winky” his well-deserved shot at greatness.

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Ric Solivan/ TainoBox.com
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