FanHouse WinkyWright

For Puerto Rican champion Miguel Cotto (34-1, 27 knockouts) and Filipino challenger Manny Pacquiao (49-3-2, 37 KOs), there never has been a more career-defining moment than this one.

Each will be battling for the pride of his countrymen as well as his status among boxing's best fighters, pound-for-pound, when the combatants step into the ring for Saturday night's mega-fight at The MGM Grand In Las Vegas.

After the jump, some of the most knowledgeable sources in the boxing world offer their predictions for a clash at the same site where Floyd Mayweather easily decisioned Mexican great, Juan Manuel Marquez, in September.

Former world champion Winky Wright will return from an eight-month layoff when he enters the ring against Grady Brewer on Dec. 11 at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan.

A southpaw who will turn 38 on Nov. 26, Wright is coming off of consecutive losses by decision to Bernard Hopkins and Paul Williams in July 2007 and this past April, respectively.

Wright (51-5-1, 25 knockouts) owns victories over former world champs Shane Mosley and Felix Trinidad, and fought to a disputed draw with former undisputed middleweight (160 pounds) champion Jermain Taylor.

Paul Williams is pursuing a fight with either WBO junior middleweight champion Sergiy Dzinziruk or Sergio Martinez on Dec. 5 in Atlantic City now that his scheduled bout for the same night, against Kelly Pavlik, has been canceled, his promoter, Dan Goossen, and his trainer and manager, George Peterson, told FanHouse.

Pavlik (35-1, 31 KOs) has a staph infection in his left finger that has plagued him for months, having led to the second postponement of his WBO and WBC middleweight title defenses against Williams (37-1, 27 KOs), a two-time welterweight and one-time junior middleweight champion.

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Showtime's Sports general manager, Ken Hershman, said that he is "thrilled" concerning the success of last weekend's two super middleweight bouts of the Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament, even as he expressed concern and well-wishes toward Jermain Taylor, who was diagnosed with a concussion following his 12th-round knockout loss to Germany's Arthur Abraham.

After losing to Abraham (31-0, 25 KOs) in a clash of former middleweight (160 pounds) champions, Taylor (28-4-1, 17 KOs) was hospitalized for a few days in Germany following their 168-pound battle.

It was Sept. 29, 2007, and there were many within the boisterous crowd of 10,127 who packed into Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall who wondered if their hometown hero, Kelly Pavlik, would go down in the first defeat of his career.

Pavlik estimated that close to 8,000 of his faithful had traveled from his native Youngstown, Ohio, to support him. Pavlik could hear them as they screamed encouragement, even as he woozily sank to his stool, having been blasted to the canvas by nearly 20 unanswered punches from Jermain Taylor.

"Are you OK? Can you continue?" asked cornerman Jack Loew, Pavlik's trainer since he first laced up the gloves at age 9.

FanHouse caught up to rising middleweight, Paul Williams, in Westminster, MD., on Friday night where the man generally considered to be among boxing's pound-for-pound best watched a stablemate on a local fight card.

A 28-year-old, southpaw with two-fisted power and, usually, an incredible energy level and punch output, "The Punisher" Williams (37-1, 27 knockouts) has twice won WBO titles at welterweight (147 pounds) and one at junior middleweight (154). Williams will appear with 27-year-old, World Boxing Council and World Boxing Organization middleweight (160) champion, Kelly Pavlik (35-1, 31 KOs) at Tuesday's press conference announcing their Dec. 5 clash at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall.

Yes, in the picture above, Trinidad is on the left. There was a time in my life when I would have been elated to read the headline of this post. That was about seven years ago when both boxers had around 40 wins, mostly by knockout, and the only blemish on either of their resumes was a 9th round disqualification of Jones Jr. to Montell Griffin in '97. Of course, Tito went on to lose to Bernard Hopkins, while Roy Jones Jr. couldn't figure out Antonio Tarver, losing to him twice, and Glen Johnson once, in the midst of an unprecedented streak of defeats. Trinidad meanwhile, got stomped by Winky Wright in May of '05, and called it quits after that. Until now.

Tito has signed a contract with promoter Don King to fight Roy Jones Jr. in January of '08. Jones Jr., who has recently made comeback efforts to the ring, will most likely agree to the fight. No venue has been set, nor has a TV deal been arranged, though King says he's going to shop the fight around. The two will fight at 170 pounds, which will require Tito to move up in weight, and Jones Jr. to move down. It appears as if a win by Trinidad could set up a future fight with Oscar De La Hoya.

So again, the question must be asked, are you excited for this fight? Is there any buzz to it? Well, it certainly carries name value. But that's about all this fight will hold. It's almost like Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy signing on to mud wrestle each other on pay-per-view. There was a time when you'd die to see the two sex symbols splash around in some grime. Now, you'd reluctantly hand the money over out of obligation rather than choice. So yes, I'll be watching, but no, I'm not excited. Side note, these guys must be really hard up for some cash.

In the run-up to their fight, Winky Wright called Bernard Hopkins a "dirty fighter." Hopkins didn't disagree.

After their fight Saturday night, no one else should disagree, either.

Hopkins is a spectacular athlete who's doing incredible things at age 42, but he won his fight in large part because Wright was dealing with the effects of a brutal head butt that opened a major gash over his eye. The head butt was ruled accidental, and Wright said after the fight that he didn't think Hopkins meant to do it, but after watching the replay several times, it looks intentional.

Hopkins also held Wright, constantly, all night. These are two defensive fighters, and a lot of holding was to be expected, but Hopkins was almost always the one initiating the clinch and almost always the second one to let go. Holding and head butts are fouls, and Hopkins should have had a couple of points deducted.

Of course, even with two points deducted, Hopkins would have won on all three judges' scorecards. One judge scored it 116-112; the other two had it 117-111. Hopkins is both a dirty fighter and a great fighter.

Bernard Hopkins defeated Winky Wright by unanimous decision Saturday night to retain his Ring Magazine light heavyweight title.

It was a mostly defensive fight, as expected, and Hopkins showed he's in absolutely incredible shape for a 42-year-old, dominating the late rounds after appearing to fall behind early. It wasn't thrilling, but it added another solid, high-quality victory to the Hopkins legacy.

Shortly after the fight ended, Hopkins apologized for shoving Wright during their weigh-in yesterday, saying he was doing it only because he wanted to draw attention to the fight and lure pay-per-view fighters. Hopkins expressed respect and admiration for Wright.

As for Wright, although he acknowledged that Hopkins "fought better than a 42-year-old fighter," Wright said, "I felt I won the fight."

Wright said he thought Hopkins' head butt was unintentional and that he doesn't blame Hopkins for the cut that opened above his eye and appeared to affect him during the fight.