Bad Left Hook

Peter Quillin tells Ryan Maquiñana that his rumored May 5 fight against 40-year-old retiree Winky Wright is nearly official:

"When they brought up Winky’s name a week ago, I had to take it. Every fight is step up on the ladder of my career, and this is clearly going to be more of a challenging camp. I’m 28 years old, and I want to be in contention for a world title shot this year."

It is impossible to blame Peter Quillin (26-0, 20 KO) for jumping at this opportunity, and I do firmly believe that. I don't even really blame Canelo Alvarez for fighting Shane Mosley -- whether he believes what he's shoveling about Mosley being a stern test or not, I really believe that kid was good to go if they'd booked him against Mayweather.

Like Quillin says, he's 28 years old and time's a-wastin' when it comes to moving him up the ladder. He wants a big fight. With 160 devoid of names (also, with Golden Boy having no one to give him), you can almost understand bringing Winky out of mothballs.

Realistically, you have to keep in mind that there's a very good chance that Winky Wright is going to sign up for this and then not actually fight on May 5. It wouldn't be his first supposed comeback since his 2009 loss to Williams -- I think it would be, if memory serves, his fourth. There's always some problem. Some speculate that he's simply no longer near fighting shape and that unless he wants to be a light heavyweight or cruiserweight, he's never going to really be near fighting shape again.

If it does go through, I really mean this: Expect absolutely nothing from Winky Wright. Do not expect the defensive wiz from his prime. I liked Winky Wright, too. Anyone who is that good at anything intrigues me. Winky was so good at what he did that I was always a fan of watching him do his thing, even though it wasn't thrilling. I think part of it was the mystery of whether or not that night's opponent could do anything to him. Usually they couldn't.

But the last couple of times we saw Winky, he was past it, and those fights were in 2007 and 2009. The man has not won a fight in over five years. Expect nothing. Maybe if he's got a little bit left then it's surprising and yay it was surprising yay.

At least, I suppose, there is some question of whether or not Winky can still fight any. Shane Mosley's been proving for the last two years that he's got increasingly less left in the tank every fight out.

I do scoff at this silly notion that "hey, they're names." This is turning into a demolition derby, as GBP breaks out all the broken down cars. Who's gonna open this show? Like I said before, Tommy Hearns is "a name." Do you want him on the card, too? Hell, his last win was all of 10 months before Winky's.