Tito’s Back (but let’s not get carried away)

by Carl Rice
10/14 - So I’ve finally seen the fight between Felix Trinidad and Ricardo Mayorga, and I have to say that it was the slugfest that everyone said it was. Tito looked sharp; he seemed to have all of the snap he had on his punches as when he left, the power and technique is still there, and the fighting spirit is still there. And no one can ever say that Mayorga can’t take a shot; I was totally surprised that he took Tito’s punches that well. In fact, if Tito had just went to the head, he probably wouldn’t have knocked Mayorda out.

But in keeping up with the cliche in boxing, take out the body and the head will follow. However, let’s not get down on our knees yet for Trinidad, as there is still a number of subjects that need to be pointed out and questions that need to be answered.

First and foremost, remember who Trinidad fought. While Mayorga is a tough opponent, he’s just a step above a club fighter. Now please don’t take that as a slight toward Mayorga. Everyone knows that club fighters give it their all and are willing to slug it out with anyone in hopes of a victory. But the title “club fighter” asserts that the fighter in question does not have the skills to make it to the highest levels. While I will watch Mayorga fight every time he’s on a card, all it takes is for someone to box with him, be able to take his power, and beat him to the punch. Trinidad did all of this and the result was a TKO.

I personally felt that Mayorga would knock Tito down in the 3rd before getting KOed himself in the next round. Mayorga was able to take Trinidad’s punches for only so long. And it was obvious that he could tremendously help himself if he didn’t smoke while training. Being the Marlboro Man looks fly on the front of “The Ring” magazine, but doesn’t help when taking a punch in the lungs.

And I was amazed to see Trinidad actually boxing with Mayorga. Perhaps this is due to the lack of boxing skills of Mayorga or Trinidad sharpening his own boxing skills, but in any case, those skills would have come in handy when he fought Hopkins. But just seeing Tito being more mobile in the ring was a positive sign. I know it was his first fight back and one cannot accurately gauge how well Trinidad will do against anyone else in the Middleweight division, but I believe he certainly deserves to once again be placed on the Pound for Pound list.

Along with this praise of Trinidad’s performance, there are questions that need to be asked. First, although he did take most punches well from Mayorga, it must be added that Mayorga was moving up in weight, so can he take them from a true middleweight? Just one year ago, Mayorga was fighting at welter and the extra 13 pounds must have hampered him in the fight. He was obviously tired by the 5th round and his stamina had never been a problem.

So how will Trinidad respond if taking punches from a heavy hitter who has been established at middleweight? Also, what is the purpose of coming back if Hopkins is not in the equation? Both Tito and Papa Trinidad have repeatedly stated that they are only fighting big fights, and at the same time, they have said they don’t need Hopkins. That’s a bunch of crap; Hopkins is the ONLY fight Tito’s Puerto Rican fans and many boxing fans want to see Tito in and fighting anyone else at middleweight is a waste of time. So the next obvious question becomes who will Tito fight next?

If Tito is serious about fighting only big fights, then, outside of Hopkins, he can go for Jermain Taylor, Howard Eastman, Oscar De La Hoya, or the winner of Winky Wright and Shane Mosley. Taylor isn’t really a big fight, but he’s more skilled than Mayorga and bigger than Trinidad. A good, stiff jab gives Trinidad problems and that’s the punch of choice from Taylor. It would be a good fight and Tito would be favored. It probably won’t be made since Taylor is lined up to take on either William Joppy or Howard Eastman. Eastman would be a good fight to see who’s next on Hopkins list. The last time most US boxing fans saw Eastman was when he lost to Joppy in 2001, a fight that really could have gone either way. He’s the mandatory for Hopkins’ WBC title (although I’ve heard rumblings about Trinidad now being place as #1 based on his performance versus Mayorga) and it would be a good test for Eastman, whose record sports Joppy as the most recognizable name.

Trinidad has supposedly already ruled out a rematch with De La Hoya, but it’s hard to believe that if Oscar threw $10-15 million in his face that he’d tell Oscar to shove it. And finally there’s the winner of Winky and Shane. That would mean that either of those guys would have to move up to middle and possibly take on Hopkins, a task that I suspect neither of those guys want to do. So Tito has options at middleweight, but not very many.

There is always the specter of him moving up to take on someone at a higher weight, but the only guy who can be considered a big fight would be Antonio Tarver. That would be a good fight, but Tarver would have to be considered the favorite; he did KO Roy Jones and he is the bigger guy. Regardless of which direction Tito takes his return to boxing, I would like to say as someone who has not always been on Trinidad’s side, I’m happy to see he’s back and I hope that he truly does get the big fights.

Other Stuff:

-- Does anyone really believe that Ricardo Mayorga is retired? It’s easy to see how he would want to quit with his love for smoking and drinking. But what about when the cash flow runs out? He seems to be the type of guy that will spend money as if it comes through a faucet, and it’s not like Don King wasn’t taking his usual 95% cut from Mayorga’s earnings. So all of that leads me to believe that we’ll hear Mayorga is coming out of retirement in the next 18 months.

-- James Toney was victorious against an out of shape Rydell Booker, but now he’s once again on the shelf due to a bicep injury. This has to be frustrating to Toney, especially since he was next in line to fight Vitali Klitschko. Now it looks like he’ll have to take on another tune up fight before getting into the ring with some real competition. He looked fantastic against Booker and even though most would put him at an extreme disadvantage against the much bigger Klitschko, if there is anyone that can deal with the size and power, it’s the elusive-while-available Toney.

-- After listening to Roy Jones talk about the loss to Glen Johnson after the replay of the Trinidad/Mayorga fight, I had a bittersweet feeling. I was happy to see that Roy had the same flamboyance and upbeat attitude, but for him to say that he’s still the best is just ridiculous. I know that not having boxing in his heart anymore has taken something away from his performances, but to not acknowledge that something is indeed different about himself physically just reeks of denial. Jones will always have a space in my heart for his skills and championship grit, but here’s to hoping that after some time off, he discovers that he did more than enough to secure a spot in the Boxing Hall of Fame and in the annals of boxing history.

-- I’ve grown a little weary of this childish feud and boxingtalk.net and ringtalk.com. Well, not actually the websites themselves, but the chatter going on between Jin Mosley and Pedro Fernandez, respectively. This all started by Shane cutting off some boxing writers because on some of the things said about him and Fernandez happens to be one of those writers. Jin has used boxingtalk as her forum to show her displeasure for some of Pedro’s disparaging words, not only about Jin, but about Shane. Personally, I think Shane can speak to whomever he chooses and Pedro using ringtalk to launch personal attacks seems juvenile. I respect Pedro as a writer and think that he’s a very knowledgeable guy, but he’s making himself seem disgruntled. He should just move on and let the Mosley’s be.

-- So HBO will be having 2 PPVs in the month of November. Well, so much for them caring about the economics of the consumer. I have no problem with paying for the third clash between Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera, but I see no reason to pay to see Jameel McCline v Chris Byrd, Evander Holyfield v Larry Donald, John Ruiz v Andrew Golota, or Hasim Rahman v Kali Meehan. This is hardly worthy of my or any other fans’ hard-earned money. But this is what it has come to in boxing these days; in order to see even seminal matches, fans have to shell out $45 or more. No wonder so many are saying boxing is dying, even if it’s not entirely true.

Please send all comments/opinions to crice@catsmpo.com



Discuss this at our Boxing Forum

RETURN TO TOP