Middleweight star Winky Wright swings back into action Saturday night against former welterweight champ Ike Quartey, but by the sound of things, Wright might be thinking too little about Quartey and too much about a rematch with Jermain Taylor.
While Wright, the former undisputed junior middleweight champion, hopes to thrill his hometown fans at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Fla. (HBO, 9:45 p.m. ET) by beating Quartey, it is Taylor's name that has rolled off Wright's tongue far more often than Quartey's during the pre-fight buildup.
Wright and middleweight champion Taylor fought to a spirited draw June 17 in Memphis, Tenn., where Taylor, of nearby Little Rock, Ark., was the huge crowd favorite.
"I believe I am the uncrowned middleweight champion of the world, and I'm looking at this fight against Ike Quartey as my first title defense," Wright said.
Wright (50-3-1, 25 KOs) was so bitter about the decision against Taylor that he stormed out of the ring and refused to attend the post-fight press conference. He even vowed to never fight Taylor again, a heat-of-the-moment remark he later withdrew.
When the dust settled, the camps indeed tried to make a December rematch. They had agreed to a deal before it quickly imploded.
"They can't do the fight without me, and I can't do it without him. So he owns 50 percent of it, and I own 50 percent of it. So it should be 50-50. It should happen. If it doesn't, the fans will miss out."
-- Wright, on a potential rematch with Jermain Taylor
Wright, who had settled for the short end of a 60-40 split, was grumbling about the terms. Taylor suddenly decided he wanted to wait to do the rematch in early 2007 instead of December.
An already tenuous deal collapsed and both fighters moved on, Wright to fight Quartey on Saturday and Taylor to defend his crown in his hometown against former junior middleweight title holder Kassim Ouma on Dec. 9.
Yet even with intervening fights, and Taylor's camp already looking ahead to a spring fight with first-season "Contender" winner Sergio Mora followed by a possible summer showdown with super middleweight champ Joe Calzaghe, Taylor is obviously still on Wright's mind.
"Does Jermain want to get back in the ring with me? I'm here. I duck no one. I never have," Wright said. "If Jermain wants to fight Winky Wright, we are going to have to come to the right terms and then it could happen. If not, then I'll move on."
"I think there were some misconceptions out there," said Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions, which is co-promoting the card with Wright's own Winky Promotions. "Winky actually had agreed to fight Jermain Dec. 9. Then we were informed that, for whatever reasons, Jermain wanted to wait until sometime next year. We said, 'Look, Winky is a great fighter. We're not going to be sitting around. We are going to fight.' And that is why Winky basically took the next biggest challenge, which is Ike Quartey, who we felt won against Vernon Forrest and deserves the opportunity."
In 2000, Quartey (37-3-1, 31 KOs) retired from boxing to his home country of Ghana after a close and disappointing decision loss to Fernando Vargas in a junior middleweight championship bout. However, in 2005 he returned. He is 3-1 during his comeback, the only loss coming on a controversial decision to fellow former welterweight champ Forrest in August.
Despite the loss, Quartey fought well enough to land the bout with Wright.
Quartey doesn't seem bothered about his role as the clear second-fiddle to Wright. All the talk about Taylor has Quartey simply off in the background waiting with little fanfare for the bell to ring on Saturday night.
"When I decided to come back to boxing, my goal was to win a world championship and cement my legacy in boxing," Quartey said. "This can only be accomplished by fighting the best. Winky Wright is one of the best fighters in the world, pound-for-pound, and I am looking forward to having a great performance."
Wright didn't sound like he was too concerned about Quartey, who is moving up from junior middleweight for the fight.
"I don't feel that Ike Quartey is strong enough to war with me," said Wright, who owns a pair of wins against Shane Mosley and a shutout decision against Felix Trinidad. "He may have been strong at welterweight, maybe at junior middleweight, but not at middleweight. I will demonstrate why people ducked me for so long. I will show the world how I can dominate a once-great champion.
"I don't feel that Ike Quartey is strong enough to war with me."
-- Winky Wright
"I definitely feel that he's biting off more than he can chew. Even if I was still at junior middleweight, he would be biting off more than he can chew. But that goes to show that he's a warrior. He's coming here to prove that he can do it at 160."
But back to Taylor, the more interesting topic to Wright.
Wright plainly said he would rather be fighting Taylor again on Saturday instead of Quartey. If the rematch happens in the future, it will be only for the right deal, Wright said.
"I've been fighting for a long time. I want to fight the best fighters, and I want to fight them now, but also I've got to get treated right, and I don't feel that Jermain and his team were trying to be fair about a negotiation," Wright said. "Things happen and fights fall through. But now if they want to do the fight, it will be a 50-50 fight, or there will be no fight. That's all."
Wright is stubborn on the point of parity.
"Nothing less. I ain't asking for nothing more, I ain't asking for nothing less," Wright said.
When asked why he deserved an even split when Taylor is the champion and has been a big box-office draw, Wright said, "I fought the first fight and he got more than me. So if it's a draw, why should I give him more than 50 percent? And I went to [fight near] his hometown.
"They can't do the fight without me, and I can't do it without him. So he owns 50 percent of it, and I own 50 percent of it. So it should be 50-50. It should happen. If it doesn't, the fans will miss out."
Even Schaefer got caught up in talking about Taylor instead of Wright.
"I think it's definitely a fight which should happen," Schaefer said about a Taylor rematch. "I think it's a fight which is good for both fighters, and it's great for the sport. I think if Jermain is going to decide to go and fight this 'Contender' guy, Mora, then I would look at that as an excuse on wanting to fight Winky, just like he didn't want to fight him in December. Winky said he's ready, willing and able to do it, assuming everything goes well with both guys here in December, and you know HBO is interested. I think the fight fans will be cheated if it doesn't happen. If it doesn't happen, it's not going to be because of Winky Wright."
Also on Saturday's card: Former super middleweight titlist Jeff Lacy (21-1, 17 KOs), also of Tampa, makes his HBO debut after a career spent fighting on Showtime. Lacy meets Vitali Tsypko (17-1, 10 KOs) in a rematch of their 2004 no-contest, which was caused by an accidental head butt.
Lacy will be boxing for the first time since a one-sided decision loss to Joe Calzaghe in their March unification fight.
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.