COMPUBOX POST-FIGHT ANALYSIS

by Bob Canobbio/Compubox

There's an expression that goes: there are two guarantees in life- death and taxes. Another near guarantee is a decision win in a fight involving Winky Wright.

The 35-year-old Wright, a former 154-lb. champ, landed 269 of a career-high 1011 punches thrown (84 per round- 27 more than the middleweight avg.), enroute to a unanimous decision win over former welterweight champ Ike Quartey. It might have been one-sided, but it was competitive. Quartey landed 174 of 642 total punches (27%)- 11 more punches landed than Jermain Taylor in his draw with Wright last June. Wright landed 226 of 643 (35%) total punches vs. Taylor, who landed 163 of 703. Since his controversial loss to Fernando Vargas seven years ago, Wright's now 11-0-1 in his last 12 fights, with just one of those wins by knockout.

Wright established his trademark jab in the first round- throwing 58, setting the tone for the fight. Winky also got off 113 total punches in round six (another personal best), landing 26. His personal best for jabs thrown in a round is 68, vs, J.C. Candelo, enroute to a, you guessed it, unanimous decision win. He averaged 41 jabs thrown per round vs. Ike (the middleweight avg. is 24 thrown per round), which allowed him to land 201 of 524 (38%) power punches. Ike landed 151 of 432 (35%) power shots, but was never able to rattle Wright, who was credited with two questionable knockdowns that had no bearing on the outcome of the fight, scored 117-110 2x and 117-109.

Take away Quartey's jab and you take away his ability to win a fight. Ike, who landed a CompuBox record (for all weight classes) 313 jabs in his draw with Jose Luis Lopez nine years ago, THREW only 210 jabs vs. Wright, landing a measley 23- he LANDED 26 jabs per round vs. Lopez.

Quartey had two strikes against him vs. Wright: Winky's a southpaw, therefore the jab is much less effective from an orthodox fighter vs. a southpaw and Winky was just too big and strong for Ike, who was making his middleweight debut. Ike's not fighting for the money, he's got several successful businesses back in his native Ghana worth a reported $15 million. If he does choose to fight on, it should be at junior middleweight, where he'd be competitive against any 154-lber.

As for Winky, there's a rematch with Jermain Taylor on the horizon, providing Taylor gets past punching-machine Kassim Ouma, who's averaged 104 punches per round in ten of his fights tracked by CompuBox. If not Taylor, whom Winky wants 50-50 parity with, there's Joe Calzaghe, another pecking southpaw, who holds a 168-lb belt. Bet the ranch that one goes the distance as would nearly any fight involving Wright.