Boxing

WBC tells its top 2: Get ready to rumble

By JOHN C. COTEY
Published December 13, 2005

Well, that didn't take long.

On Monday, the WBC sent a letter to the camps of Jermain Taylor and Winky Wright , ordering that negotiations for a fight between the two begin now.

If no deal can be reached by Jan. 20, the WBC will order a purse offer, to be held in Mexico City.

Loosely translated, the WBC is telling promoter Lou DiBella that Taylor's next fight will be against Wright or he can return its middleweight championship belt.

The pronouncement by the WBC is seen as a victory for Wright, but only if a deal can be made. Otherwise, any promoter can try to win the rights to the fight with 75 percent of the winning bid going to the champion (Taylor) and 25 percent going to Wright, the challenger.

Wright would get a fairer shake if something can be negotiated before then, but DiBella could make things difficult and sounds like he might.

"We'll commence negotiations and see what happens," DiBella said. "I doubt we will reach an agreement but we could. If we don't and it goes to a purse bid we get the majority of the revenue, so it will be interesting to see if Winky is okay with fighting for 25 percent. But we're not going to give up the title to avoid Winky Wright."

Wright (50-3, 25 KOs) is coming off a unanimous decision win over Sam Soliman Saturday, and is the mandatory challenger to Taylor's WBC and WBA belts. He demanded a fight with Taylor immediately after dispatching the tough Aussie.

DiBella is resisting, preferring to line up Taylor against someone easier in front of a hometown crowd in Little Rock, Ark., in the spring. But promoter Gary Shaw seems unwilling to wait until late summer, unless his 34-year-old fighter is financially compensated.

"I don't think it's out of the question that we could fight Winky next but I think it's idiotic and stupid," DiBella said.

DiBella continues to insist that Wright did not look good enough to warrant a big-money fight with Taylor, 27, who is coming off two boring, inconclusive and controversial decisions over 40-year-old Bernard Hopkins .

Wright and Soliman combined to throw more than 1,800 punches Saturday night. Taylor and Hopkins combined to throw only 1,500 in their two fights combined .

In fact, in each of his last four fights ( Shane Mosely twice, Felix Trinidad , Soliman), Wright has thrown more than 600 punches and landed at least 250. Taylor averaged 350 punches thrown and 108 landed his last two fights.

DiBella should stop complaining. He looks like a promoter trying to protect his fighter, and Taylor is soon going to look like he's running from Wright.

And before DiBella thinks about running to Taylor's WBO mandatory, consider that No. 1 Felix Sturm is injured and No. 2 Hopkins is likely to drop when the new rankings come out, leaving Taylor with the No. 3 fighter.

Winky Wright.

NO RESPECT: If there's any question that Wright's defense might be the best boxing has ever seen, check out these numbers: Trinidad and Soliman combined to throw 1,817 punches at Wright, and 1,585 missed.

REWIND: Wright's victory will replay at 11:45 tonight on HBO2. Also, HBO will broadcast Boxing's Best: Top 3 Fights of 2005 on Dec. 26-28, and Wright's win over Trinidad will air at 11 p.m. Dec. 27. HBO's selection is questionable, as all were lopsided showings: Arturo Gatti - Floyd Mayweather , Wright-Trinidad and the first Hopkins-Taylor fight, which was worse than the second one.

UP NEXT: Heavyweight contender Samuel Peter tries to get back on track after his loss to Wladimir Klitschko when he fights Thursday in Hollywood, Fla., and WBA heavyweight champ John Ruiz takes on unbeaten 7-foot-2 Russian Nicolay Valuev Saturday.

[Last modified December 13, 2005, 01:31:15]