"Ain't no way Bernard will ever want to fight me again"

GL: Can you give us some thoughts on your fight with Bernard Hopkins? " I definitely think I won the fight. It was a good fight and I did fight out of my character because I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to bang him, I wanted to knock him out. I felt I could hurt him and I know when I was catching him he was feeling it, but I couldn't catch him consistently because he kept holding, hitting and head butting. But I take nothing away from him, he's a crafty old cat and he was tougher than I thought, but I definitely feel I won."

GL: Do you feel he fought a dirty fight?

Winky Wright: "I definitely feel he fought a dirty fight and everybody who watched it knows that. He was holding and hitting from round one. He split my eye early and I went all twelve with a severely cut eye."

GL: Do you think he should have lost points for what you just described as dirty tactics?

WW: "All night he was holding and hitting and leading with his head, so I definitely think he should have lost points, but it's all good and I'm not going to cry over spilled milk. The fans I know I came to fight, I told y'all I was coming to fight and that's what I did. I took the fight to a bigger guy and won the fight."

GL: How do you feel about the scorecards, which erroneously indicate that you were dominated?

WW: "They were ridiculous. When I heard the scorecards, I thought they was giving it to me, but I was like damn, I don't think I won by that much. I thought I was going to take it and move on, but then when they said and still, I was like you've got to be kidding me."

GL: In the twelfth round you appeared to be hurt. Was that the case?

WW: "Nah, I was never hurt in none of the rounds. One time he headbutted me in the fourth round and my ears were ringing for the rest of the fight. I couldn't get my ears unplugged from that. I was just toughening out, being gritty and grimy and taking it to him like the old days. I could have fought him a lot smarter and I could have boxed him a lot more. I seen that I could have stuck and move, but I wanted to put him on the ground so bad. I guess he may have gotten in my head from the stuff he was saying and doing, but I just wanted to hurt him, it wasn't about boxing and moving."

GL: Bernard made a couple of remarks prior to the fight that they were aiming to take your jab away. Was he successful at nullifying your jab or did you abandon it?

WW: "I jabbed, but I didn't jab like I normally do because he kept on coming in with his head. When I jabbed and he came in with his head, I had to kept watching for his head. Everytime he comes in, he comes in with his head so you have to dodge his head and his punches. The referee kept on saying to watch your head, watch your head, but how many times you going to tell somebody to watch their head before you do something about it?"

GL: Do you feel there should be a rematch?

WW: "That man doesn't want no rematch. That man knows that was one of his toughest fights ever. Hell no, he don't want that again. But I don't fight at that weight, I'm a junior middleweight, middleweight, I just wanted to show the world that I could take it to a bigger, stronger fighter and that's what I did. I definitely could have boxed more, but I wanted to knock him out and that's what made the fight have action."

GL: Do you regret not taking the Jermain Taylor fight?

WW: "Hell no. I want all of the best on my record and I wanted it to be known that Winky Wright fought all the best."

GL: Where you do go from here?

WW: "I definitely will continue to fight. Right now we're just going to sit back and look for the best of them. But we're going to fight who we want to fight and we're going to move back down to middleweight or junior middleweight."

GL: Earlier you said if you could have boxed more, but based on the scorecards do you feel that it really would have done much good?

WW: "Not really. It looked like the judges were going to do what they did no matter what. We all watched one fight and the judges watched a different one. All I could do is go out there and do what Winky Wright does, box and work. We could have done some things different, but I wanted to fight him and knock him out."

GL: Do you acknowledge that this was a close fight that could have gone either way? A 115-113, split decision kind of fight?

WW: "I definitely acknowledge it was a close fight, but I thought I had him by two or three rounds. I ain't tripping on it though and like I said we're going to keep looking for the best."

GL: Is there anything you'd like to say in closing?

WW: "I told y'all I was coming to fight and that's what I did. I was making him run and I was making the fight and everybody saw who was making the fight and who was doing all the holding and head-butting."

M

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