[3] Wright's maternal grandfather, Caleb Baines Martin, was a runaway slave from Natchez, Mississippi, who fled to the Arizona Territory shortly before the Civil War.

He beat Sal Bartolo on May 22 at Madison Square Garden to get a chance at the New York State Athletic Commission featherweight championship then held by Joey Archibald.

The modest crowd of 4,000 booed the decision for Wright, favoring the younger, whiter, and more regional Italian Bartolo from Boston.

[9] Wright successfully defended the title against former champion Harry Jeffra gaining a tenth-round technical knockout on June 19, 1942 in Baltimore.

The first six rounds remained somewhat close, but Jeffra was badly hurt in the seventh and eighth, as he lost his speed and fell victim to Wright.

Jeffra was floored for a count of nine in the ninth, and his defeat looked in inevitable, as Wright continued to bang away at him after he arose for the rest of the round.

As Wright continued to land blows against the nearly defenseless Jeffra in the opening of the tenth, the referee stopped the bout, coming between the contestants to end the match.

[10] Before a crowd of 12,000, Wright successfully defended his title again on September 25, 1942 against LuLu Constantino in a fifteen-round split decision at Madison Square Garden.

[11] He lost his title in a fifteen-round unanimous decision before a crowd of 19,000, Willie Pep, eight years his junior, on November 20, 1942 at Madison Square Garden.

Pep, who made his fiftieth straight victory, used brilliant blocking and adroit shifting of his body along the ropes to defend the strong punching of his opponent.

The Associated Press gave Wright four rounds, including the fifth through seventh, but strongly favored Pep, who won decisively, with eleven.

[3] In November 1955, the popular tabloid Confidential wrote an exposé, titled "Mae West's Open Door Policy".

The story, intended to raise scandal and arouse interest, described West's live-in love affair with the "bronze boxer" and how she frequently gave Wright hundreds of dollars to gamble.

[19] In August 1957, a highly publicized criminal libel case was brought against Confidential to expose the tactics used by the magazine's writers.

Rumors of foul play and suicide immediately began to surface as Wright was scheduled to testify in the high-profile libel suit against Confidential magazine.

[22] These rumors were furthered when Wright's first wife Gert Arnold, who was expected to testify, claimed she received an anonymous phone call from a "gruff voiced man" who told her "...if you know what's good for you, you'll clam up about this whole thing.