Tito
Felix Trinidad
He was first taken the distance in his sixth contest when countryman Valentin Ocasio dropped a six-round unanimous decision in October 1990. Trinidad stopped his next five, taking his career record to 10-0 before going the ten-round distance against America's Darren McGrew in July 1991. Though he was now campaigning as a welterweight, he barely weighed over 142 pounds (64.41 Kg).
With a first-round blast out in his next fight he finished 1991 with a ten-round unanimous decision against future IBF light-welterweight champion Jake ‘The Snake’ Rodriguez, inflicting only the second defeat in a nineteen-fight career.
Trinidad had three contests in 1992, totalling eight rounds. His October contest against Alberto Cortes saw the Puerto Rican taste the canvas in the second round before blasting out the Argentinian in the following round.
He continued his knockout spree in 1993, stopping his next three before challenging IBF champion Maurice Blocker. At thirty the American was ten years older than his hard-hitting challenger and had a decent record of 34-3 (18 KOs) with Trinidad 19-0 with sixteen early.
Blocker had been campaigning since February 1982 and faced men such as Lloyd Honeyghan, dropping a twelve-round unanimous decision against the WBC and IBF welterweight champion in April 1987 and three years later dethroned defending WBC welterweight champion Marlon Starling. He suffered his second defeat in his next bout to IBF champion Simon Brown, getting stopped in the tenth round in March 1991.
Simon Brown subsequently vacated the IBF belt and Blocker outpointed Glennwood Brown for the vacant title in October 1991. The new champion successfully defended his crown in August 1992, outscoring Luis Garcia, before jumping up a division to challenge Terry Norris for the WBC light-middleweight title. Norris was too big and stopped Blocker in the second round in February 1993.
After a second round No Contest in a non-title fight, Blocker put his IBF strap on the line against Trinidad on 19th June 1993 at San Diego’s Sports Arena. Trinidad wasted little time and ripped the belt from the champion with a second-round knockout, keeping the ‘Thin Man’ on the canvas for several minutes after landing a devastating left hook.
The new champion defended his belt twice that year and took on compatriot Hector ‘Macho’ Camacho in January 1994 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the same night Julio Cesar Chavez lost his ninety-fight unbeaten record to Frankie ‘The Surgeon’ Randall.
Camacho was a three-weight world champion winning the WBC super-featherweight championship in 1983 and the WBC lightweight title in 1985, before moving up to light-welterweight to become inaugural WBO champion in 1989. He lost the title and unbeaten record to Greg Haugen in February 1991, before gaining revenge over his conqueror three months later to regain his title.
The Macho Man lost again in September 1992 in a challenge to WBC light-welterweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez, before moving up to welterweight. Camacho won three in a row to set up a match with Trinidad, in an attempt to become a four-weight champion.
There was a ten-year age gap between the champion and thirty-one year old challenger. Camacho used his experience and ring savvy to survive the full twelve rounds, dropping a wide unanimous decision 116-110, 117-109 and 119-106, keeping intact his record of never being stopped.
Luis ‘Yori Boy’ Campas was next to challenge Trinidad. The Mexican boasted a 56-0 (50 KOs) resume and put the defending champion down in the second round. Trinidad recovered and stopped the unbeaten challenger in the fourth, taking his record to 24-0 (19 KOs).
Trinidad faced another unbeaten challenger before the year was out in the guise of the American Oba Carr. The champion was floored again in round two, only to knock the challenger down twice in the eighth to finish the fight and retain his title. He made three routine defences before facing ex-IBF lightweight champion Freddie Pendleton at The Mirage Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas in May 1996. Both combatants scaled in at 147 pounds (66.68 Kg), with the champion bombing out the American in the fifth round.
The champion continued his knockout spree through the next three years, where he was taken the full twelve rounds by Pernell Whitaker in February 1999. Whitaker won gold at the 1984 Olympics and became undisputed world lightweight champion in August 1990. The American went on to win the IBF light-welterweight belt in February 1991 and the WBC welterweight title in March 1993. In March 1995 he stepped up to capture the WBA light-middleweight title, only to relinquish it straight away and concentrate on defending his WBC welterweight crown.
In his ninth defence he faced Oscar De La Hoya, who won a unanimous decision to inflict only the second defeat on Whitaker’s career in April 1997. Whitaker originally won a WBA welterweight elimination match against Andrey Pestryaev, only for the decision to be turned to a No Contest after Whitaker tested positive for cocaine. Whitaker was out of action for the next eighteen months, but this didn’t stop him from being allowed to challenge Trinidad in his next contest.
Trinidad hadn’t been in the ring for ten months due to suing his promoter, Don King, alleging at least eight cases of fraud and fifty breaches of contract. Trinidad also signed a contract with Dino Duva to join Main Events on an eight-fight deal, however, he lost his legal battle with King and was forced to cancel his deal with the Duva company. Less than a week after losing in the courts to King, he signed a new contract to stay with his controversial promoter.
Trinidad-Whitaker took place in front of 13,821 fans at Madison Square Garden. The former champion was floored late in round two and in the sixth suffered a broken jaw. The southpaw made it to the final round, dropping a unanimous decision 117-111 and two scores of 118-109.
Three months later he made his 14th defence of the IBF belt, knocking out Hugo Pineda in the fourth round in front of his home supporters. He returned to a Las Vegas ring that September to face WBC welterweight champion Oscar De La Hoya.
The ‘Golden Boy’ became Olympic lightweight champion at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, turning pro that very year, winning the WBO super-featherweight title in his twelfth fight against the Dane Jimmi Bredahl in March 1994. Four months later he took the WBO lightweight championship, knocking out Jorge Paez in two rounds.
De La Hoya captured Rafael Ruelas’s IBF lightweight crown with a second-round stoppage in May 1995. In June 1996 he stepped up another division and dethroned WBC light-welterweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez in a four-round bloodbath. By April 1997 he became a four-weight world champion when he outscored Pernell Whitaker for the WBC welterweight title.
De La Hoya was making his eighth defence when he climbed through the ropes to face IBF counterpart, Trinidad. The WBC champion believed he had done enough to win the contest in the early rounds and decided to coast his way to a points decision. Unfortunately for De La Hoya the judges gave Trinidad the final rounds and declared the Puerto Rican the winner by a majority decision. De La Hoya dropped to 31-1 (25 KOs) whilst Trinidad added the WBC belt to his IBF title and improved to 36-0 (30 KOs).
Trinidad stepped up to the light-middleweight division in March 2000 to challenge the WBA champion and 1996 Olympic light-middleweight champion David Reid. The ‘American Dream’ was undefeated in fourteen bouts and captured the WBA strap in his twelfth contest in March 1999. Against Trinidad he was making his third defence.
Reid scored a knockdown in the third, only for Trinidad to return the favour in the seventh and gained three knockdowns in round eleven. Reid managed to hear the final bell to drop a 114-107 (twice) and a 114-106 unanimous decision. The victory made Trinidad a two-weight champion. That July he blew away Mamadou Thiam in three rounds in the first defence of his new belt.
On 02nd December 2000 he faced the undefeated IBF light-middleweight champion Fernando Vargas. The twenty-two-year-old IBF title holder from Oxnard, California won the title against Luis ‘Yori Boy’ Campas in December 1998, taking his record to 15-0 (15 KOs). Against Trinidad he was making his sixth defence and had already beaten good campaigners in Ronald ‘Winky’ Wright and Ike Quartey.
Trinidad then stepped up to the middleweight division and challenged William Joppy for the WBA title at Madison Square Garden on 12th May 2001. Joppy was the naturally bigger man but that didn’t seem to matter to the Puerto Rican, who knocked the middleweight champion down in rounds one, four and finally in the fifth to become a three-weight world champion.
His reward was a date with WBC and IBF middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins. Though Hopkins had defended his IBF belt thirteen times previously, it was Trinidad who came to the ring as a 2-to-1 favourite and received the lion’s share of the purse (Trinidad earned $9 million compared to Hopkins’s $2.5 million).
Hopkins, who started his pro career with a defeat in October 1988, first became IBF middleweight champion with a seventh-round TKO over Segundo Mercado in April 1995 after drawing their first contest in December 1994 for the vacant belt. His list of scalps included John David Jackson, Glen Johnson, Simon Brown, Robert Allen and added the WBC title to his IBF belt in his previous contest by outpointing Keith Holmes in April 2001.
The thirty-six-year-old American had an impressive record of 39-2-1 (28 KOs) with Trinidad coming in at a perfect 40-0 (33KOs). Hopkins, unlike William Joppy, was able to absorb the Puerto Rican’s bombs and dominated the contest. Trinidad was behind 109-100 and two scores of 107-102 going into the final three minutes, needing a knockout to win.
Trinidad next stepped into the ring in May 2002 to stop Hacine Cherifi in four rounds, only to retire at the age of twenty-nine. His father and trainer, Felix Trinidad Snr said he and his son both came to the decision after speaking with Don King who confirmed there would be little chance of a rematch with Hopkins.
Trinidad returned to action on 02nd October 2004 to take on Ricardo Mayorga for the lightly regarded NABC middleweight title. Mayorga was awarded a knockdown in the third when Trinidad’s glove touched the canvas. The Puerto Rican’s power resurfaced in round eight, striking down the Nicaraguan three times to end the contest.
The victory set up a showdown with Ronald ‘Winky’ Wright for a WBC middleweight eliminator on 14th May 2005. Wright debuted in October 1990 and lost his first pro fight to Julio Cesar Vasquez in a WBA light-middleweight title challenge in August 1994. He regrouped to capture the WBO light-middleweight title by scoring a split decision over Bronco McKart in May 1996.
He became a familiar face to British boxing fans when he defended his title against Ensley Bingham,Steve Foster and Adrian Dodson, before surrendering his belt to Harry Simon in August 1998. Wright bounced back in his next contest, an IBF title elimination match, losing his title challenge on points to Fernando Vargas in December 1999.
Wright won his next two and picked up the vacant IBF light-middleweight belt in October 2001, outsourcing Robert Daniels. In his fifth defence he added Shane Mosley’s WBA and WBC light-middleweight belts in March 2004, going on to win the rematch with Mosley eight months later. His reward was his bout with Trinidad.
Southpaw Wright showed his class as he beat up and gave a boxing lesson to the Puerto Rican. The three judges had Wright the victor by wide scores of 119-108 (twice) and a shutout 120-107. Trinidad announced his retirement again two days later.
Jones regained his title with a first-round knockout and went on to add the IBF and WBA championships to his WBC light-heavyweight title. In March 2003 he stepped up to heavyweight and dethroned John Ruiz for the WBA crown. Boiling back down to light-heavyweight took its toll as Jones suffered his worst form as a professional, losing three on the bounce to Antonio Tarver in the second round, a ninth-round knockout defeat by Glen Johnson and a point loss to Tarver again in the space of seventeen months. He got his career back to winning ways with two points wins in 2006 and 2007 respectively before facing Trinidad in New York.
The fight was made at a catchweight of 170 pounds (77.11 Kg), with Trinidad weighing bang on the limit, the heaviest of his career. Jones was thirty-nine and showed he still had boxing skills, knocking down the Puerto Rican twice with his trademark quick combinations. After twelve rounds Jones improved to 52-4 (38 KOs) with a 116-110 (twice) and 117-109 unanimous decision. Trinidad dropped to 42-3 (35 KOs) and never boxed again.
All the best fight fans
Lea
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