- As at May 2007 -

On July 30, 1992, Ronald Wright, an undefeated junior middleweight out of St. Petersburg, Florida, knocked out Carlos Santana in the second round of a scheduled eight-rounder in Tampa, Florida. For that, his sixteenth victory, he earned $800, which was $200 short of his largest purse. The ring announcer called him Winky Wright.

Five months and three days later, Wright knocked out Darryl Lattimore in one round in Differdange, Luxembourg. Little changed. Wright was still undefeated and underpaid. Sure, the language was different. The pay was in francs, but they still only added up to a couple of thousand dollars. And, the ring announcer called him Roland, a first name that would stick for the all-world junior middleweight champion's international period, a 5 1/2 year span of 20 fights in seven countries and three continents.

The bridge from Tampa to Europe for Wright was erected by Dan Birmingham. After moving to Florida in 1977 to operate a construction business, Birmingham opened his now famous gym in St. Petersburg, that has also produced Jeff Lacy, the IBF super middleweight champion. Wright walked into Birmingham's gym when he was 16, and he's never left.

After Wright had nocked out Santana for his 16th victory, Birmingham called Don King. He called Bob Arum. He called Lou Duva. He called every major player he could think of. He called all of them twice, some of them three and four times. Nobody called him back. Then he got lucky.

He called Art Mayorga who said he knew some people in France and would he and Winky consider talking with them. A few weeks later, Wright and Birmingham were on a plane to France to meet with the Acaries brothers. A deal was struck. For his European debut, Wright would exchange the warm climate of Florida for the cold wintery season of Luxembourg.

The first trip was a bitterly frigid nightmare. Birmingham and Wright flew to France, then rode a hard-benched train for six hours to Luxembourg. From there, it was another hour by car through the mountains in a snow storm to reach their lodgings in Differdange. Their rooms were inexpensive and spartan. That's where they spent Christmas and New Year's Eve. A few days before the Lattimore fight, Wright came down with the flu.

The late Arye Fain, who had signed on as Wright's agent, suggested a remembered remedy of honey and onions. "You take a whole cup of honey and a whole onion and you leave the onion in the hney for a whole day," said Birmingham. "An hour before the fight, you remove the onion and drink all the honey. I'll tell you, it really works. It only lasts for an hour or an hour and a half, but while it is working, it dries up and makes you feel great."

Wright dropped Lattimore three times, stopped him in the first round. It was better than onions and honey.

Still fighting six and eight-rounders, Wright went on a tear, ripping off eight straight victories in France, Germany and a sporting club in Monte Carlo, with a brief stop in Punta Gorda, Florida. He was undefeated in 25 fights. His highest purse had been $5,000. There still were no calls from King, Arum or Duva. Looking back, Wright has to laugh. "I was fighting in places I had never heard of, that I could not even pronounce."

Then the Acaries brothers offered him $50,000 to fight WBA super welterweight champion, Julio Cesar Vasquez in August 1994, in another place Wright could not pronounce, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France. The undefeated Wright had yet to fight a main event, had not gone more than eight rounds, and that far only twice. Vasquez was 50-1 and had fought just five less championship rounds than Wright had fought in his whole career. "Where do we sign?" asked Wright.

"In France, they do not have screens for the windows," said Birmingham. "It was hot and the mosquitoes feasted on Winky. The food was bad, the training facility was terrible. I kept wondering what else could go wrong."

Vasquez knocked Winky down in the second, seventh, ninth and twice in the last round."The first three were slips," said Birmingham. "Winky was wearing new shoes and he was slipping all over the place." The first knockdown in the last round was legitimate," said Wright. "He caught me good. The last knockdown was a push; I was so tired my daughter could have pushed me down." Vasquez won by just three points on one card, by four one one, and by five on the third.

Undaunted, Wright went back into some of boxing's more unheralded trencvhes. All were victories, raising Wright's record to 34-1.

His 35th fight, against Andrew Council in Norfolk in March 1996, was on the USA Network Tuesday Night Fight series. Six months earlier, Council had gained prominence with a decisive victory over former WBC welterweight champion, Buddy McGirt. That was McGirt. This was Wright. Council had no chance. Wright barely broke a sweat as he swept all three cards in his second defense of the NABF super welterweight title. (His first two North American Boxing Federation championships happened in France. He took the title from Tony Marshall in February 1995 in Beziers, and he defended it against Anthony Ivory three months later in Levallois.)

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