WINKY WRIGHT

March 5, 2004 - by Ron Borges

Jack Mosley knows why he and his son are going to the Mandalay Bay Events Center on March 13.

So does Winky Wright.

They are all going there to do what seldom is done in boxing these days. They're going there to settle something in a most unsettled sport.

"We're going to throw down, take the crown and get out of town,'' the father and trainer of WBC-WBA junior middleweight champion Shane Mosley said of their 154-pound unification bout with Wright, who holds the IBF version of that title. When the night is over only one of them will wear the champion's belts that will be carried into the ring by their minions and because of that one thing will have been decided.

"When this fight is over, the winner will be the greatest 154-pound fighter in the world,'' promoter Gary Shaw said and for once a promoter's words were not bombast nor exaggeration. They were fact, pure and simple, true as a straight right hand to the chin and just as irrefutable.

In the semi-main event that will precede Mosley-Wright on the HBO telecast (9:30 p.m.), something will be decided as well. When undefeated heavyweight prospect Joe Mesi (28-0, 25 KO) and former cruiserweight champion Vassiliy Jirov (33-1, 29 KO) are finished with each other one of them will be finished as well, at least as a rising star in the heavyweight division.

One of them will become the leading contender for the heavyweight championship of the world. The other will sink back into the pack, just another fighter with broken dream who has to start over again to make a way through the maze that heavyweight boxing has become.

"This sport needs guys to step up and prove they're champions,'' said Jirov's promoter, Lou DiBella. "We give out the title "champion'' too much in this sport. We know the challenge this is for Vassiliy but we know Vassiliy is the best fighter Joe Mesi ever fought, too. There's going to be a big prospect who comes out of Saturday night."

One undisputed champion. One leading heavyweight contender. That is what will be decided in the ring in Las Vegas. For boxing, it's the kind of thing too infrequently seen but the kind that, when it occurs, produces special nights and special fights.

That is the intention of Mosley and Wright. It is the intention of Mesi and Jirov. It is why they have decided to risk much in search of great reward. In the end, only two will profit. The other two will lose one of the biggest fights of their lives. The willingness to take such a risk when all too many of their contemporaries seem content to avoid such challenges is what has not only the boxing public excited but also the fighters themselves.

"Jirov is one of the most exciting fighters in the world and one of the best cruiserweights in the world,'' Mesi said of the former champion he is about to face. "I have a lot of respect for Jirov. I think he's a great cruiserweight...and I think he should have stayed there.''

After losing his title to James Toney in a back-and-forth battle he was not quite able to survive, Jirov has opted to move up in weight to take on an opponent who is the hottest prospect in the division. Mesi packs some whopping power in his right hand and a supreme confidence in himself and in the rightness of his quest to become a more successful Great White Hope than the many who have preceded him.

Mesi will very likely outweigh Jirov by more than 20 pounds. He is the stronger puncher and will come into the ring believing he is facing a man whose style is perfectly suited for his abilities and his power. But Jirov is a man with pedigree, a 1996 Olympic gold medalist and a cruiserweight world champion who knows very little about losing and is in no hurry to expand on that knowledge.

"He made a mistake,'' Jirov said of Mesi's decision to fight him. "He made a big mistake. I can box, I can brawl, and I can punch. If he comes after me I'll be wating for him with something.''

That something, Jirov believes, is the punching power that allowed him to knockout 29 of the 33 men he defeated as a cruiserweight. It is the kind of power that can transform a fighter into a contender, an unknown into a star. The same kind of power Joe Mesi will be hoping to use to declare himself boxing's rising heavyweight superstar.

Wright and Mosley look at their bout far differently. Although Mosley has predicted the bout will not go the distance, both of these men are far more than big punchers. Each can box slickly and move quickly. Mosley is sure he is the heavier handed champion, while Wright is convinced his power is underrated, yet both concede teh speed advantage belongs to the man who has dubbed himself Sugar Shane, a nickname that comes with a heavy sense of responsibility.

In the end, this should be a meeting between two fighters with great skill and great will. Whoever can use the former to his best advantage to break the latter will carry the day. That man will be considered the best junior middleweight in the world. The other man? What will be his future?

That will be determined by the kind of fight this turns out to be. If both fight bravely and with controlled fury, even the loser will be enhanced. Yet glory in defeat will not carry with it what both Wright and Mosley have come to acheive - a date with history.

"I didn't have to fight Winky,'' Mosley said. "I could have just waited for (Felix) Trinidad (a mega-payday that has already been agreed to but whose future also hangs on the outcome of this match), but I wanted to prove I'm the best junior middleweight out there. This is going to be like a chess match. Winky has a lot of skills. So do I. There's going to be a lot of things in that ring he hasn't seen before. How will he respond to that?

"I really don't know if he's prepared for my speed but he better be ready to take a good shot. That's the truth.''

Wright accepts that Mosley is a vast talent whose combination of speed and power is rare at any weight. He understands too this is not only the biggest payday of his life but also the biggest fight of his life. Yet he is at peace with all of that because this is what he has sought ever since he lost a disputed decision to Fernando Vargas in 1999 on a night when he thought surely he had finally won the kind of match that would give him entry into the world of million-dollar paydays.

"Winky wanted this fight for a long time,'' recalled HBO Sports vice-president for programming Kery Davis on the even of the match. "In 1999 he fought Fernando Vargas. It was a hell of a fight, a nip and tuck battle (that went to then IBF champion Vargas). Winky hasn't gotten a chance since.

"When everyone was talking about a third fight between Shane and Oscar (De La Hoya), Shane told me that would just be for money. He told me he'd rather chase history. That's how this fight got made. He is a guy the sport should be proud of because he does things for the right reasons.''

In Mosley's case, the reason is to make boxing history. In Wright's case, it's to become the unified champion at the expense of a surefire Hall of Fame opponent in the kind of fight that can change a man's life if things go right.

"If I can't get a big fight after beating Shane that would be the end of it for me,'' Wright admitted. "My style is tough for guys. They didn't want to deal with that if they didn't have to but after I beat Shane they won't have a choice.

"This fight will open up the door for me to everything. I'm not making big money but this fight isn't about money. It's about making history. Once I win, the money will be there. I respect Shane. He's very fast. He has power. He has heart. He's going to bring it. But he's going to have to deal with my skills and with my heart and my determination. I'm a winner. I didn't come here to lose.''

Neither did Shane Mosley, Vassiliy Jirov or Joe Mesi. None of them will be coming to the Events Center to lose. It is a thought that will never enter their minds until it becomes a harsh reality for two of them. That is why this should be a rare night for boxing. A night the sport can be proud of.