"Like I said, we want to fight the best, but the best don't want to fight us. They proclaim and tell everybody in the news and everywhere else that Winky's turning down this and Winky don't want that. No, Winky just want to fight and Winky just want to be treated fair
All I'm saying is treat me fair. Let's give the fans what they want to see because that's what boxing lacks. They lack having the true fighters that the fans want to see fighting each other. Then they keep coming up with these mismatches like we seen Saturday," stated former undisputed jr. middleweight champion Winky Wright as he voiced his frustrations about several fighter who are unwilling to face him. You don't want to miss what else he had to say as he set the record straight regarding Arthur Abraham, Kelly Pavlik, De La Hoya's fight with Manny Pacquiao, which he feels is a total mismatch, and much more.
PC: What's good man? It's been awhile since we've seen you out there.
WW: Yeah man! I've just been chilling. I'm just relaxing and training; nobody don't want to fight. You got these people that say they want to fight and they offer me fights, but I ain't getting the offers so apparently it's not happening.
PC: In the fight this past Saturday night, one guy you wanted to fight and it never came off and the other guy you already fought. What did you think about the fight?
WW: The truth came out and he got exposed. I'm not taking nothing away from him. I still think he's a good fighter. Great? No, but good. We saw he wasn't a great fighter Saturday, but he is a good fighter. He had one good win against Jermain Taylor and they wanted to make him the next coming. They were looking for the great white hope and they were looking real hard. He got the punch and the toughness, but they wanted to make more out of him than what he was.
PC: A lot of those guys, Bernard, Pavlik and Taylor, have already rematched each other. Are you shocked not to be able to secure a rematch with either guy so far?
WW: They don't want a tough fight, point blank. You see me and Jermain fought a very tough fight. I still think I won. You see me and Bernard fought a tough fight and I still think I won that fight. You don't see me get dominated by nobody or see a one-sided fight because I'm a complete fighter. That's what happens when you put a complete, true fighter in with a fighter that hasn't really been tested or proven and you see the outcome.
PC: We haven't seen you compete in over a year my man. How frustrating has it been watching all this unfold from the sidelines?
WW: It's very frustrating. Like I said, we want to fight the best, but the best don't want to fight us. They proclaim and tell everybody in the news and everywhere else that Winky's turning down this and Winky don't want that. No, Winky just want to fight and Winky just want to be treated fair. They know if they offer me something ridiculously stupid
like saying, "Look Winky, we going to go and fight and I'm going to give you $10, but I'm going to make 10 million and we going to fight." Come on! That's ridiculous. The whole point about fighting is it's not all about the money. All I'm saying is treat me fair. Let's give the fans what they want to see because that's what boxing lacks. They lack having the true fighters that the fans want to see fighting each other. Then they keep coming up with these mismatches like we seen Saturday. It was a true mismatch.
PC: I know you've pursued a De La Hoya fight for quite some time. Do you feel like the De La Hoya-Pacquiao fight is a mismatch as well?
WW: Another mismatch! Come on man!. You got Manny Pacquiao
and I like Manny Pacquiao, he is very exciting and I think he is a great lightweight, but definitely not a welterweight. Come on! How you going to make this little dude come up and gain all of this weight and try to fight him. The fans
(laughing) if they feel like they could sell it to them, they gonna sell it to them.
PC: To echo Damian, the fans are the ones that are suffering in this situation.
WW: Yeah, they are getting jerked. That's what makes it hard for the real fighters that want to fight the real fights because they keep seeing fights that they know are mismatches and know they shouldn't be fighting, but the media can get in someone's head and make them think that the fight is going to be something it is not. In reality, they know what they are doing.
PC: If you had it your way, off the top of your head, could you name 3 guys that you would like to fight ASAP?
WW: My 3 top opponents I would love to fight are De La Hoya, Calzaghe and whoever else the fans want me to fight. If it's Pavlik, Abraham, Floyd, whoever they want to see me fight, it's cool. I just want the challenging fights, you know what I mean? I don't want no mismatches, but look, they don't want me to fight nobody. They tell me, "We want you to fight these people." They give me the top 5 people and none of them want to fight me. They won't let me fight them, but then they give them to somebody that's not even in the top 10 or two weight classes below them. It's ridiculous, but that's what is happening to me and it's kind of been an ongoing thing where everybody just stays away hoping I get old or I just lose interest and they could come out and get a victory over Winky Wright, but it ain't going to happen.
PC: It was put out there that you guys turned down a fight with Arthur Abraham. I'm sure you would like to respond and tell us the deal.
WW: See, that's false again. I guess they wanted me to go overseas, but for what? They wanted me to go overseas for what I could make here. Why would I do that? That didn't make sense. The same thing though, why is nobody saying he turned down a fight with me? We offered him more money to come here and fight me. I want you to put that out. We offered him more money to come here and fight me, but he turned it down.
Damian Ramirez (cutting in): But he was willing to come here and fight Pavlik here.
WW: Yeah, once again, they all are willing to fight everybody else, but they not willing to fight me. They always got a reason not to fight me instead of saying, "Look, I'll fight him."
PC: That's what's up Winky. Good luck man and I appreciate the good word. Anything you want to say to close out the interview?
WW: Like I said, tell the fans don't let the media trick them. They know a real fighter when they see one. Once again, I'm not saying Kelly Pavlik is not a real fighter. I think he is a real good fighter, but I just think they overrated him and they made him to be this great fighter that he wasn't and once again he had no opposition. He fought one good fighter in Jermain Taylor, who I beat already too. He beat him and he was the next coming and the next great thing. Hopkins went out there and did what anybody that really knows boxing knew what was going to happen. He boxed him easily and made it an easy fight.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]