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Wright vs. Frazier:12 rounds for IBF title

Winner of tonight's junior middleweight fight meets Fernando Vargas.

By JOHN C. COTEY

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 12, 2001

After his last fight, a lackluster showing in a win against former sparring partner Jose Flores, Fernando Vargas wasted little time setting his sights on the boxer he wanted next:

Winky Wright, who fights tonight for the IBF junior middleweight title Vargas once held.

"I want to fight (Oscar) De La Hoya, of course. Everyone knows that," Vargas said at the postfight news conference. "But if I can't have him I want to fight Winky Wright. I want the winner of Winky Wright-Robert Frazier because that IBF belt is mine and I'm gonna go pick it up again."

Wright (41-3-0, 24 KOs) hopes to grant Vargas his wish by beating Frazier in tonight's 12-round championship bout, which will be televised on ESPN2 from Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, Calif., and pits the IBF's No. 1-rated fighter (Wright) against No. 2.

Though he does not want to look past the dangerous Frazier, it's hard not to for Wright. In between situps while training recently at his St. Petersburg gym, Wright threw out a list of fighters he would like to face, Vargas' name prominent among them.

After all, it was Vargas who defended the IBF junior middleweight title in 1999 with a controversial decision against Wright, the St. Petersburg fighter's biggest fight to date. Since, the two have gone in opposite directions: Vargas to a big-money fight with Felix Trinidad (he lost) and Wright to less heralded fights with Bronco McKart and Keith Mullings.

Wins in those fights earned Wright a mandatory challeng against Trinidad, who decided instead to move up in weight to participate in the recently concluded middleweight tournament.

Which brings Wright back to Vargas, who initially had no interest in granting Wright a rematch.

"It took a couple of years," Wright said. "He doesn't really want to fight me though. He's got no choice. He's all out of fights. The promoters probably took him aside and told him he had to call me out."

Wright figures that a win tonight means the top names no longer can avoid him. He is widely regarded as one of the top three 154-pounders, though he has not seen the lavish purses awarded to other fighters in his class such as Trinidad, De La Hoya and Vargas.

"I love boxing, but I want the big payday. I want to be paid," Wright said.

Beating Frazier could give Wright that opportunity after a number of big fights slipped through his grasp. Wright's star seems to shine and then dim more quickly than others, though he now has a more bombastic manager in James Prince and is promoted by Top Rank.

"I don't even get press in my own town; my hometown ignores me," he said. "Some guy goes and wins the national pingpong championship and gets more press than I do. But you watch when I beat Frazier. . ."

In Frazier, Wright gets a fighter in much the same situation he is in. A victory would salvage a 17-year career marked by disappointing losses in Frazier's biggest fights.

A former amateur standout who turned pro after losing in the 1992 Olympic trials, Frazier (23-4-3, 13 KOs) lost his past three fights of 1999 but won fights on ESPN2 against Jose Rivera and Purcell Miller. That got him ranked at No. 10, and he then beat No. 7 Pedro Ortega, vaulting him to No. 2 in the rankings. Does he have enough to knock off Wright, one of boxing's slickest technicians and an underrated puncher? No, according to super-middleweight Antwun Echols, who sparred with Wright last week and was a U.S. teammate of Frazier's from 1991 to 1993.

"There's no comparison," said Echols, who shares trainers Dan and Mike Birmingham with Wright. "Robert Frazier leaves his left hand down; he's going to get tagged all night long. He throws a lot of punches and moves a lot, but never at an angle where he can counter with anything."

Frazier will have to hit hard to match what Wright has seen in training with Echols. Though beaten twice by Bernard Hopkins, Echols is ranked by the WBO and IBF and is one of the hardest hitting 168-pounders in the world.

"I want to be a world champion and make enough money to support my family," Wright said. "I also want to be considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. It took Marvin Hagler I don't know how long for that; it was even worse for Bernard Hopkins, like eight years. But he got that big money.

"I'm next. It's my turn now."

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