LAS VEGAS -- When former world champion Winky Wright enters the ring in San Juan's Coliseo de Puerto Rico on Dec. 11, it will be with the short-range goals of acheiving past glory.Wright (51-5-1, 25 knockouts), a southpaw who turns 38 on Nov. 26, will end an eight-month layoff when he meets Brewer, who will turn 39 on Dec. 22. Brewer (26-11, 15 KOs) has won eight consecutive fights, inlcluding first- and, second-round knockouts of his past two opponents in May and August.
Wright twice defeated current world champion, Shane Mosley, as a junior middleweight (154 pounds) in 2004, and then followed that up with a rise to middleweight (160) for a one-sided, May, 2005, unanimous decision over former world champion and Puerto Rican great, Felix Trinidad.
But since vanquishing Sam Soliman in December of 2005, Wright is 1-1-2.
In succession, Wright battled Jermain Taylor to a disputed draw, dominated former titlist, Ike Quartey, and then suffered consecutive unanimous decision losses to Bernard Hopkins and Paul Williams.
FanHouse caught up to Wright for this Q&A on the eve of Saturday night's Miguel Cotto-Manny Pacquiao megafight to discuss his bout, which is available on traditional pay per view channels for $29.95.
FanHouse: Can you talk about your last fight -- your performance against Paul Williams?
Winky Wright: First of all, I don't want to take anything away from Paul Williams. I think that Paul Williams fought a helluva fight. It was just the right time. There was a two-year layoff for me, and, plus, there's his style and his size.
Paul is, what, 6-foot-2, and has arms like a giant? And he throws a billion punches a round. A lot of people just don't want to fight him. But I came off of two years to do it, and I'd do it again.
But that's not the point. It was just different fighting that style, and his awkwardness because I wasn't as sharp as I wanted to be. The punches that I wanted to throw, I would get set, and my timing -- it was just a second or two off.
I would throw my punches, and I was just missing a lot of them. If I could have just thrown them at the right time, it might have changed the fight. But it is what it is, and you win some and you lose some.
If you're going into every fight, knowing that you're going to win, thinking that you're going to win, that's the way that it's supposed to be. But if you do that and you lose, and you gave it your all, well then, you have to look at that and then you can come back from it.
That's what great fighters do. You take a loss, and then, it's 'O.K., well I'm going to come back and show you that I'm still here.' And I'm still here.
FH: Was there a point in the fight where you said that, 'Well, this young guy is on, and it just might not be my night?'
Wright: No, not really. For me, I never give up. I knew he couldn't hurt me, but the point was, 'Could I catch him?' That's was my whole thing. I just wanted to catch him. From the early rounds, I said, 'Let me just work him, try to make him get tired.'
But he stayed fresh. Shorty just kept throwing punches, kept throwing punches, kept throwing punches. So I'm like, 'Let me pick off some of his shots, and then, maybe I can catch him and hurt him.' But he really wouldn't let me get in that one, good shot.
He was rolling with a lot of punches, and, once again, my timing was off. My punches weren't as solid or as crisp as I wanted them to be. It was just mainly, 'Well just keep digging, and you can catch him, you can catch him, and if you can catch him, you can hurt him.'
But I just couldn't catch him. So he fought a great fight, and now, it's all good. I would have liked to see Paul Williams fight Kelly Pavlik, somebody his size with good, long arms and who is tall.
Pavlik is tall, and even though he has shorter arms, he has the size. But Paul Williams, with that long reach, he's going to be hard to beat.
FH: You sound as if you have sort of an affinity with Paul Williams?
Wright: I know how he feels. By not having people who want to fight him. That was almost my whole career. For him to step up and fight me -- and like I said, he got me at the right time -- that took a lot.
But it was especially tough for me with a person like him who throws a lot of punches and who stays busy. But give me about a year, and like I said, I'll fight a couple of times, taking out all of the bums, and then, I'm coming back and whipping on everybody.
FH: What is your gameplan?
Wright: I'm willing to get right back into a big fight right after Grady Brewer. I want to fight Grady, do what I have to do to beat Grady. And then, if no fight presents itself, then I'm going to take another fight to stay busy and stay sharp.
And then, if no fight presents itself then, I'll take another fight to stay busy and stay sharp. I'll get somebody that's tough, and beat them, and, then, maybe a fight will present itself then.
But when you wait on fights, and you don't get them, and you're just laying around, you're not going to be as sharp. If you take Michael Jordan out of the game for two years, and then try to throw him into an NBA championship game, he's not going to look good.
He's not going to be slamming and shooting three-pointers on everybody. He's going to be a little bit rusty. And that's all that it was for me. Paul came out and executed his gameplan, and I give him all of the praise for fighting a great fight.
FH: How much do you weigh right now, and what weight do you wish to compete at?
Wright: Right now, I'm probably at about 169. I want to fight at 160. I'll want to fight people my size -- not the super middleweights or light heavyweights. I'm a small guy. I fought 154 my whole career.
The only reason I moved up to 160 is because there was nobody at 154. I fought Jermain Taylor at 160 pounds for the undisputed middleweight title, which I feel that I won. Then I fought once at against Bernard Hopkins because there was still nobody to fight.
But that's just showing you that I'll fight anybody. Now, it's time to get back to fighting in my weight class. I'm a 154-to-160-pounder. Really, I'm trying to fight at 160, maybe once or twice.
If I can't get Kelly Pavlik, then I may go down to 154 and do what I've got to do -- fight people my size.
FH: If you could pick your next three fights, and those guys would agree, who would your opponents be?
Wright: Straight up, Pavlik would be No. 1. But that's the problem, 'Who else is at junior middleweight?' There are welterweights I would fight, but then I would be taking advantage of them.
I've always wanted to fight Oscar De La Hoya. I really don't want to call out people. I just want to fight the best. But if Pavlik wants a name, and, being a champion, and since he didn't fight Williams, then I know that he's looking for somebody else.
I mean, maybe he could be thinking, 'Well, if Williams beat Winky, then I can come back and I can beat Winky, and then, maybe I'll do Williams.'
But Williams caught me two years off from boxing, and he ain't going to catch me with a two-year layoff. When I get back into the ring against Grady Brewer, I'm going to look so sharp that you all are going to say, 'Somebody revived that man, because he's kicking a**'
FH: Chad Dawson?
Wright: That's not really a fight for me. I like Chad. We used to train together. He was training with my trainer, Dan Birmingham. We've sparred together, had fun, and all of that.
But, Chad is a light heavyweight who said that he would come down to 168. But I'm a 154-, 160-pounder. And Chad is 6-1, 6-2, and I'm 5-10. I need to be fighting people my weight.
That's like saying, 'After this fight, why don't Manny Pacquaio come up to and fight Winky Wrigt.' There's a size difference. Chad is a big, tall dude.
FH: So, why Grady Brewer in Puerto Rico?
Wright: I don't have to do this, I want to do this. I want to move around, get around, expand my horizons on the boxing scene. I used to travel the world and fight, and it can bring you a lot of fans from all over.
I've been doing a lot of fights in Vegas. After fighting 'Tito,' I told him that I would come down there and do a promotion with him and we'd do something together, and so I did it.
FH: Does your victory over Felix Trinidad give you respect and leverage with his fans?
Wright: Tito, if you go to Puerto Rico with Tito, he's God. He's a good do, people stuck by him, and he carried Puerto Rico on his back every time he stepped into that ring, and he fought like a warrior, and gave his best, and the fans appreciated that.
FH: How do you have to look against an awkward Grady Brewer to boost your stock at this point in your career?
Wright: Right now, for me, I'm just focusing on winning the fight. If I go out and do what I plan on doing, then I feel like I'm going to look good. It's just that sometimes, people are going to expect you to do so much because it's a Grady Brewer.
But they've got to realize, Grady Brewer is going to come out with his best game, because he's fighting a Winky wright. So that's going to make it a little tough and it will put some pressure on me.
Grady's style is going to be a little awkward, but if you want to be the best, you've got to come down and fight the best. Right now, I can't really get the best into the ring, so I've got to stay busy.
That's the problem. When I stay out of the ring for almost two years, you're not going to be as sharp as you were when you were in the ring. So I'm not going to let that happen to me again.
I'm going to go out and fight, fight and fight and beat everybody until I get the best.
FH: So how much longer are you going to do this?
Wright: I really don't know. There are really no marquee names in boxing. So when people say, 'How long are you going to continue boxing?'
If there's no reasonable fight but there that can make me a great amount of money or present a great challenge, then there's no reason to do it.
