 Wright (right) wants another shot at the middleweight crown |
Ronald "Winky" Wright moved a step closer to a possible re-match with middleweight king Jermain Taylor by beating Ghanaian veteran Ike Quartey. Wright out-pointed Quartey in front of his hometwon crowd in Tampa, Florida, throwing more than 1,000 punches and scoring a knockdown in round two.
Former welterweight world champion Quartey attacked throughout and made a victory bid in a see-saw final round.
But Wright held him off and the judges scored it 117-110 117-110 and 117-109.
"He's as tough as nails," the 35-year-old Wright said. "He's a good friend. I didn't want to hurt him, but I still wanted to win the fight."
Quartey, 37 said: "He was harder to fight than I thought because he's a southpaw and he has good defence.
"He didn't really hurt me and I thought I did enough to win the fight, but he's a good fighter."
Wright dominated the light middleweight division from 2001-5, but after a good win over Felix Trinidad in his first fight at middleweight, drew with Taylor when they fought in June.
On the undercard, Jeff Lacy, who was demolished by Wales' Joe Calzaghe in March, won a controversial split decision over Vitaly Tsypko of the Ukraine. It was Lacy's first bout since losing his IBF super middleweight belt to Calzaghe.
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 