Wright move for Macklin

18 January 2011 – Jonny Stapleton

European Champion Matthew Macklin will take a significant step towards a World title challenge if he can defeat former undisputed junior middleweight champion Ronald Winky Wright on April 9.

The Tipperary Tornado has signed a multi fight deal with Golden Boy promotions and has been handed a dream bout against the 39 year old former pound for pound ring King on the undercard of Juan Manuel Marquez v Erik Morales clash.

It is a massive opportunity for the Brian Peters managed fighter, who previously looked set for an EBU defence against Darren Barker, to gain American notoriety and to position himself for a World title tilt.

Wright is a massive name Stateside and is a future Hall of Fame fighter, but at this stage of his career is beatable.

Considering Wright (51-5-1), hasnt tasted victory in the ring for five years or fought in two the chance is there for Macklin (28-2) to take a scalp in a bout that could propel toward the top of a Division that includes Andy Lee and John Duddy.

Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer stressed the winner of the fight he tried to make last year will get the chance to become champion of the world.

“The winner clearly is set up for a middleweight world championship fight. For each guy this is an extremely important fight. The story here is that you have Matthew Macklin, who has worked himself up the rankings and put together a pretty impressive streak of wins and now is considered one of the best contenders from Europe, so for him this is a big step up,” said Schaefer.

“A win over Winky Wright will make him a serious contender for the one of the world titles. For Winky Wright to come back and fight against an opponent like Matthew Macklin shows he is serious about coming back. If he wins, he’s in line for one of the middleweight world titles. Winky understands this won’t be an easy fight, but he also knows if he wins, he is perfectly positioned. Winky didn’t want just a tune-up fight.