His Jabs Weren’t Flying Under the Radar

Are we ready for a dominant force in boxing’s new showcase weight range?

He actually has been here for a while not, but maybe we had to learn about it the hard way. Just not as hard as Felix “Tito” Trinidad.

Winky Wright announced his arrival on center stage with 12 steady rounds of punches to Trinidad’s dome Saturday night. It was his first pay-per-view fight. He’s literally riding the elevator up -- in this case, to an upper-floor suite at the MGM Grand this week -- even if no one else seems to notice.

“I’ve had to keep proving myself over and over again,” Wright said.

The two victories over Shane Mosley -- once considered the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world -- didn’t do it. Apparently they didn’t impress Trinidad enough, either.

“He underestimated me,” Wright said. “When they underestimate you, you slide under the radar.”

The reason people sleep on him is Wright’s style is more Greg Maddux than Roger Clemens. He wins with precision instead of blowing you away.

His performance in the MGM Grand Garden Saturday night was more memorable for its sustained dominance than individual moments. He won a unanimous decision, taking every round on judge Duane Ford’s card and 11 of the 12, according to Jerry Roth and Dave Moretti.

The interest in boxing is in the middleweights, especially now that the heavyweight division has been subjected to the unretirement of (ugh) John Ruiz.

Well, Wright doesn’t have the usual resume of a boxing superstar. He didn’t spend his teenage years in jail. He doesn’t go through trainers as if they’re pairs of socks. He isn’t promoted by the bombastic Don King. He lacks the star quality of Oscar De La Hoya.

He’s the New England Patriots, the San Antonio Spurs.

In the world of boxing, where it’s all about individual’s names, Wright’s always been the second name on the marquee, like D.M.C., Oates and Hutch. Estimates of his collections for this fight were less than half of Trinidad’s $10-million payday.

If there is a rematch, Wright’s name deserves to be first. Unlike Trinidad’s other loss, his father didn’t come into the ring to stop it; you could say his daddy was in there all night.

Boxing is supposed to be about timing and impact, not statistics. But in this case the numbers told the story. Wright landed 262 punches to Trinidad’s 58.

The telltale sign was the silence from the Trinidad backers for the latter half of the fight.

It makes you wonder what’s left for Trinidad. At a prefight news conference, he sat among a group of reporters and answered a question about why he came back to boxing after a 29-month layoff. His words spilled out in Spanish until he paused and reached a portion that required no interpretation.

“Ti-to, Ti-to, Ti-to,” he said, pumping his fist as he imitated the fans’ chants at his fights.

There’s no substitute for excelling at your craft while a crowd cheers for you. No hobby, no new pursuit, not even any amount of money can replace it. His devoted Puerto Rican fans showed up at the weigh-in to chant Trinidad’s name. They broke into Tito chants at various points during the undercard bouts. And before the start of the headliner.

But after the early rounds, nothing.

Wright never gave them hope, never opened so much as the slightest window for Trinidad to get back into the fight.

Trinidad’s other obsession was his desire to avenge the only loss of his career, to Bernard Hopkins. But with Wright now a better candidate for a Hopkins bout than Trinidad, what’s left to fight for?

“We’ll see what happens,” said Trinidad, 32. “ I’m still young and strong. I’ll have to talk to my promoter about what we’ll do.

“I love challenges, and I will accept any challenge in the future. Whether it’s Winky or any other champion.”

Wright didn’t get a belt for this non-championship fight, but it still felt like a major accomplishment. He’s the man to watch now.

Earlier in the week, he told us to watch his eyes after Round 1 to get a read on how the fight would go. But it was Wright’s attitude after the second round that really showed he was in command.

In the first round the boxers circled and moved side to side instead of the straight-ahead style Trinidad prefers.

When they squared off in the second round, a little more to Trinidad’s liking, Wright held his own as they exchanged hard shots. It was one of the closest rounds, and went to Trinidad on Moretti’s card. When the bell sounded, Wright gave Trinidad a quick pat on the side, then smiled and waved his arms to the crowd to encourage more noise. He knew he had this.

The southpaw landed his right jabs at will, popping Trinidad’s head throughout the fight.

He easily deflected Trinidad’s shots at his head and absorbed the body shot. He even withstood the low blows; Trinidad was warned twice and finally had a point deducted in the ninth round.

Wright even beat Trinidad at his own game. Trinidad tried unsuccessfully to land an uppercut throughout the fight, but Wright caught him with one in the 10th round.

“A virtuoso [performance] played on a Stradivarius violin,” King called it.

Even if it wasn’t string music, just sweet science.

*

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.