LAS VEGAS Another big fight, another controversy.
As is becoming typical with major fights, there was a battle over the gloves that Felix Trinidad and Winky Wright will wear during the middleweight showdown Saturday night at the MGM Grand (9 p.m. ET, HBO PPV, $49.95).
Trinidad prefers Everlast gloves and Wright fights with Grant mitts.
While boxing tradition has always held that a champion or big-name fighter gets to pick which gloves will be worn Trinidad in this case the Nevada State Athletic Commission recently implemented a rule that allows fighters to select their own brand of gloves, as long as it is not already specified in the fight contracts.
That's where the issue arose. According to Marc Ratner, the Nevada commission executive director, Trinidad's contract specified that Everlast gloves would be worn by both fighters. However, Ratner said that the Wright contract filed with the commission did not contain that clause.
"We weren't going to change because it was not in our contract," Wright promoter Gary Shaw said.
That led to some controversy at the Wednesday morning pre-fight organizational meeting.
"I knew with two different contracts that I could not supplant one of them," Ratner said. "It worked out fine."
It was worked out only after a few tense moments, during which Trinidad's father and trainer, Felix Trinidad Sr., threatened to back out of the fight. The solution: Trinidad agreed to wear Grant gloves as long as he gets to try on and select from the multitude of gloves available before Wright gets to pick his pair on Friday.
Forget the belts: Trinidad-Wright is a non-title bout, yet still one of the biggest fights of the year. The same goes for the March classic between junior lightweights Erik Morales and Manny Pacquiao.
Last year, Trinidad came out of retirement to face Ricardo Mayorga in a major non-title fight and light heavyweights Glen Johnson and Antonio Tarver gave up their sanctioning organization belts in order to fight each other.
Wright believes the explosion of major fights without titles at stake is great for boxing.
"These titles, these sanctioning bodies, they think they control the boxers," Wright said. "That's wrong. If you got fighters with big names that want to fight, they should be able to fight. We can fight whoever we want. Look, if [the organizations] want to sanction it, fine, but the [fans] are the ones who decide.
"If you are a true champion, the fans will let you know. You don't need a title anymore. It's about being the best. If you want to be the best, you have to fight the best. That's what I want to do. You got [Bernard] Hopkins, you got Tito, you got [Oscar] De La Hoya. That's my hit list. We did Shane Mosley and we got three more on the hit list."
Wright, who has held his share of belts and became the first undisputed junior middleweight champ last year when he beat Mosley, said it makes no difference to him if he ever fights for a belt again.
"I don't need a belt. I had all the belts, but they are trophies," he said. "It's great to be a world champion but that don't pay the rent. I can't take that belt and pay my rent with it. It's about making the money and leaving a legacy, and the only way you can do that is by fighting the best."
Mr. Prepared: Wright trainer Dan Birmingham thinks he knows how to beat Trinidad. All he has to do is go to the video tape. He has watched "countless times" the tape of Trinidad's 12th-round knockout loss to Hopkins and Trinidad's controversial decision against De La Hoya. In both fights, Trinidad was outboxed for long stretches.
Wright saw each fight only when he watched it live, but Birmingham said, "I have watched and broken down tapes of many of Tito's fights. All you have to do is study the first six rounds of De La Hoya-Trinidad and the last six rounds of Hopkins-Trinidad to get a blueprint on how to defeat Tito."
Birmingham said that while watching the fights, he takes notes so he and Wright can work on specific things. Those notes will make it all the way to the dressing room on Saturday night.
"Dan does something I've never seen another trainer do," Shaw said. "In the dressing room, he has a final checklist on the wall so he and the fighter can go through it before the ring walk."
Judah returns to MGM: Undisputed welterweight champ Zab Judah, who defends his title against Cosme Rivera on the undercard, will be fighting in the MGM Grand Garden Arena for the first time since the worst night of his professional career.
On that night, Nov. 3, 2001, he met Kostya Tszyu to unify the junior welterweight division and was knocked out in the second round. However, it was the immediate aftermath of the fight that ravaged Judah's reputation. So incensed with the stoppage of the fight, he threw a stool across the ring toward referee Jay Nady and pushed his gloved fist into Nady's chin. The outburst cost him a fine and suspension by the Nevada commission.
Since then, Judah seems to have matured, moved up in weight and captured the welterweight title. At a media workout this week, Judah reflected on his career since that night.
"I've come full circle since the Kostya Tszyu fight here in November of 2001," Judah said. "This is the first time I have been in this arena since that night. I am finally going to put this behind me."
Biggest win: Trinidad has a slew of big victories in his storied career. He's beaten De La Hoya, Fernando Vargas, Pernell Whitaker, Mayorga, David Reid, Hector Camacho and William Joppy.
So which does Trinidad consider to be the greatest victory of his career?
"Believe it or not, it was my first world title fight against Maurice Blocker back in 1993," Trinidad said. "If I had not won that fight, I would not have been here. I wouldn't have the chance to fight De La Hoya or Vargas."
Trinidad was 21 when he scored a second-round knockout of Blocker to win a welterweight title. Trinidad later unified belts with his victory against De La Hoya and eventually unified junior middleweight titles against Vargas.
Quick hits: There is a rematch clause in the contract that says if Wright wins, he has to give Trinidad an automatic rematch, which Wright is fine with.
"The only worry I have about this fight is that the loss will send Tito back into retirement and I lose the big payday I have been promised for the rematch," he said. Both fighters say they each sparred more than 250 rounds in preparation for Saturday.
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.