If Ronald "Winky" Wright had his way, and if there was any justice in a game that rarely shows it to the deserving, the IBF junior middleweight champion would find a gift-wrapped offer to fight fellow champion Oscar De La Hoya under his Christmas tree.

But for boxing's Charlie Brown, odds are that there will be just another rock in his stocking, another opportunity foiled by promoters, networks, or reluctant warriors.

It's enough to bring a man down. But not Winky.

"It's hard because you've got all these other fighters that haven't done half the things that I've done, and they're getting the chance to become a super champion or a great fighter because the people want to fight them," Wright told MaxBoxing. "But for me, the more I do, the less they want to fight me. It is hard, but I know that I'm going to prove to everybody that I am one of the best fighters out there, and the only way for me to do that is to keep fighting and to keep moving on when everybody else would quit."

Seconds after his victory over Fernando Vargas in September, De La Hoya surprised many when he spoke of his willingness to fight the 30-year-old Wright, long avoided by all but the heartiest of fighters. Maybe it was surprising because the Floridian doesn't come into the ring on a flying carpet, isn't blessed with concussive power, and doesn't talk trash. He just fights.

But while that may be enough for De La Hoya, it isn't nearly enough for Wright's former promoter and 'The Golden Boy's current one, Bob Arum, who has made it very clear that he won't be endorsing a De La Hoya-Wright showdown anytime soon.

He cites Wright's less than mainstream public image, and the assumption that there is no money to be made with such a unification bout. Wright obviously disagrees.

"Bob knows great fighters, and he knows a good one when he sees one," said Wright. "Bob can say all that stuff about this and that, and that we can't make the money, but De La Hoya has never had a flop on pay-per-view. And I don't think this would be a flop either. No matter what Bob Arum says about me not being on TV that much, everybody knows me, and they want to see Oscar fight a fight where it's not automatic that he's gonna win. The people know they're going to see a great fight, so that's all they've got to say. There are two fighters that should be fighting each other, point blank. The fight 's gonna sell. Bob Arum says the money ain't there? De La Hoya's gonna make the money no matter what. De La Hoya could fight someone moving up from 130 and the pay per view would do the numbers. So it can't be no money thing."

It's a fighting thing.

In a wide-open division where the smaller marquee names (Wright and Vernon Forrest) may be tougher foes than the bigger ones (Vargas and Shane Mosley) are, De La Hoya the businessman may be excused for going where the money is. But De La Hoya the fighter knows where the toughest challenges lie, and who he chooses for his dance card will be a telling decision, or one influenced by Arum.

Wright wants to give De La Hoya the benefit of the doubt.

"He (Oscar) said he would (fight Wright) and I respect him for that," said Wright. "Even though his promoter don't want him to. But he said 'I will fight Winky Wright,' and I just hope he keeps his word. Just like Vargas said that, and I still want to fight Vargas too."

After a meeting last week, Vargas seems certain that a rematch with De La Hoya will eventually happen, and after a couple of tune-ups and possibly another belt-winning effort, 'El Feroz' will have Oscar, not Winky on his mind. Wright, though, who lost a controversial decision to Vargas in 1999, wouldn't mind settling business with the Oxnard native again.

"Out of all this, I still like Vargas," said Wright. "People think I dislike Vargas, but I like him. He's a fighter with heart. He's said a lot of things where he's put his foot in his mouth, but he's going to say it, and he's still gonna try and do it. Vargas is still a great fighter, and I would like to fight him again to prove to everybody - well, prove to the judges, because everybody else knows I won that first fight - that I can beat him, and then we need De La Hoya. And the money's there because if I beat De La Hoya we can fight again. Bob Arum's yelling money, money, money, but he just don't want me to fight him. That's all it is."

In the meantime, Wright will continue to fight, both literally and figuratively. He plans on returning to the ring early next year against a to be named opponent, and then looks to battle a mandatory challenger in June.

As for De La Hoya, he recently proposed his idea of Survivor, a junior middleweight tournament involving the likes of Vargas, Wright, Forrest, and Mosley. It's an intriguing but unlikely idea, but in boxing, you never know.

"It's kind of wild, but it can be exciting too," said Wright of such a tournament. "They're getting the fighters together so they can fight and determine who the best junior middleweight out there is. I should be able to fight Oscar because he's got two belts and I've got one belt. All these other guys want to get what we've got. Why should I have to fight all these other guys to get to Oscar?"

Wright has a point, but if he did get involved in such a tournament, his choice of toughest foe of the bunch may be a surprise.

"I would have to say Forrest," said Wright. "He's long, he's tall, and he's slim. All the fighters are going to present their own danger and I don't want to say one fighter is better than the next fighter, but for me, my best challenge out there would be Forrest."

Obviously the pot at the end of this tournament would be golden (boy), but Wright, who has had enough disappointments in this sport to fill a pot of coal, is skeptical, but also cautiously optimistic. And if that doesn't make much sense, try to figure out why Wright, one of the sport's top tacticians, has been ignored for so long.

"If I had to bet on it, I couldn't say it would happen," said Wright "But Oscar wants to get his first undisputed title, so the only way to do that is to fight me. I see they're doing this tournament to see if one of these other fighters can beat me, but that ain't gonna happen either. He's just trying to make me take the long route to get to him I guess. I just want to fight Oscar. I feel I deserve that fight and I did everything I had to do to get that fight. Now it's just a point of getting in the ring and making it happen."

If it does happen, Wright will have reached his goal of a career defining, big money fight against a top-notch foe. And after all he's been through, such a fight, especially a winning one, may be the signal for him to call it a day.

"When I do get that fight with Oscar, the fight that can define my career, then I think that after that I may call it quits because of how the game treated me," said Wright. "It's not the people. The fans have always been behind me, but the television networks, like HBO, after all the stuff I did - going overseas, fighting a whole lot, coming back over here, winning - and I still ain't got an HBO contract? Yet these fighters that they're blowing up, giving them 20 wins against bums, and then they're giving them contracts straight out of that? So, yeah, the game has been kind of rude to me. After I fight a De La Hoya or whoever they want me to fight, and I get my defining fight and win, then I'll have to evaluate what I'm gonna do after that."

Winky Wright tries hard not to sound bitter. He's one of the good guys of the sport, despite an astounding affinity for Domino's Pizza, and he's an eternal optimist. He'll never dazzle you with flash, or scare you with his power, but if you enjoy the finer points of the sweet science, you must appreciate him. Sometimes that's not enough for Wright; sometimes it is. And someday, he may just get what he deserves.

It's only Wright.

"This is a great job," said Wright. "I love the art of boxing, being able to do what I do and get paid for it. I could be working a 9 to 5. Even though I haven't got my just due as far as the big money fights, I'm getting paid, I've met a lot of great people, a lot of great fans, and I'm just blessed that god gave me the skills and ability to do what I do. Hopefully, one day I'll get that fight and show the world that I am one of the best fighters out there."