Winky Wright's promoter says a last-minute shift in the money split has shelved the anticipated fight, at least temporarily.
By JOHN C. COTEY, Times Staff Writer
Published July 22, 2005
It's back to the drawing board for St. Petersburg's Winky Wright as negotiations to fight 140-pound champion Floyd Mayweather fell apart Thursday morning at a meeting in Las Vegas.
"As of right now, it's no deal - they changed the money on me at the last second," said promoter Gary Shaw, who said he was close to finalizing the fight when he walked into Top Rank and Bob Arum's office Thursday.
But within seconds, he said, the deal evaporated.
"I walked in, I told him: "I believe we have a deal,' " Shaw said. "And Bob said, "so it's a deal - 55-45 (money split)'.
"I said, "Bob, that was never, ever discussed, no deal' and that was that."
The day before, Shaw said he and Arum had agreed to a 50-50 purse split as well as other requests from Mayweather's camp. He added that Wright adviser Jim Wilkes and Don King, who has an option on Wright's next fight, agreed as well.
According to Shaw, however, Arum said he did not remember that conversation. Arum was unavailable for comment.
Shaw and Arum were in Las Vegas to promote the Oct. 8 rematch between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo. Shaw promotes Corrales; Arum promotes Castillo.
"There were requests made by Floyd Mayweather, we laid it out and I think they were fair requests," Arum told maxboxing.com. "Gary rejected them, so there's no fight. We have to sit with Floyd and we'll figure out (what we do next). Maybe (Antonio) Margarito. It's unfortunate as far as the Winky Wright fight, but it's not going to happen."
While Shaw said he agreed with just about all of the demands from the Mayweather team, principally regarding weight, he doesn't think the Detroit fighter, aformer Olympian, was behind the breakdown.
"I think it's Arum," Shaw said. "When Floyd normally calls someone out, he's serious about fighting them."
Mayweather, one of the sport's most vocal stars, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal Sunday that he was interested in fighting Wright, and Shaw wasted no time calling his bluff.
The next morning, he was in the Top Rank offices working on a deal.
"Remember, Floyd called Winky out; Winky didn't call Floyd out," Shaw said. "We were even willing to come down in weight to 154."
Because Wright, who prefers to fight at 160, could probably put on as many as 15 pounds between the weigh-in (the day before) and the fight and enter the ring as high as 165-170, Mayweather's camp requested a morning-of-the-fight weigh-in. That included a stipulation that Wright couldn't go more than eight pounds above the limit.
The undefeated Mayweather, who started his career at 130 and weighs 140 pounds, would be at a significant size disadvantage for the fight.
Wright (49-3, 25 knockouts) is still scheduled to fight Nov. 19 on HBO, provided Shaw can find a suitable opponent in the sparse middleweight field.
