 Wright delivered a defensive but lethal display to down Trinidad |
Winky Wright gave Felix Trinidad a boxing lesson in defeating the three-time world champion by unanimous points decision in Las Vegas. Trinidad went into the bout favourite but the Puerto Rican had no answer for Wright's tactics and hefty punching.
The Florida southpaw took the early initiative and slowly unravelled Trinidad with his powerful right jab.
There was no title at stake but Wright could now tempt undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins.
Wright himself became the undisputed light middleweight champion last year after twice beating Shane Mosley.
The 33-year-old inflicted a second career-defeat on the 32-year-old Trinidad, who came out of a 29-month retirement last October.
"I've been proving myself over and over again," said Wright, who moves to 49 wins and three losses.
"I think he underestimated me a little bit. He didn't think I was that strong."
 |  I executed the game plan beautifully |
Wright won 120-107 on one scorecard and 119-108 on the
other two.
"It was a tough fight. He's got a beautiful jab," Trinidad said.
No title was at stake, but the fight drew a near sell-out crowd of
14,176 to the MGM Grand casino.
Wright landed 262 of 756 punches, including 185 jabs, to 58 of 557
for Trinidad, who was credited with landing only 15 jabs.
"I executed the game plan beautifully," Wright said. "I
hit him with some great shots in the face."
From the opening bell, Wright used his right jab to keep Trinidad off balance and stop him from getting any bombs away.
Wright had promised to let fans know with a smile at the
end of the first round if he had Trinidad figured out, and
he grinned as he walked back to the corner.
As the fight wore on, there was growing desperation in Trinidad's corner as Wright piled up points on the ringside scorecards.
And the more aggressive Trinidad became as the rounds went on,
the more he paid for it with Wright's ramrod right.
Trinidad rarely landed anything clean through Wright's defences while Wright seemed to shake Trinidad with both his jab and his lefts down the middle.
Trinidad never went down but seemed hurt a number of times and a big right uppercut in the 10th round had him wobbling.
And while Wright will now try to negotiate a fight with Hopkins, Trinidad will be left to decide whether to make Saturday's fight his last.
MMIX
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 