RSSFelix Trinidad
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Felix Trinidad, Roy Jones Jr. Quotes
Photo: David Martin-Warr/DKP
Two of the greatest boxers in history, Felix “Tito” Trinidad and Roy Jones Jr., will face each other in a battle boxing fans have been waiting for years to see at New York’s famed Madison Square Garden on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008, and will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View.
Trinidad (42-2, 35 KOs), from Puerto Rico, and Jones (51-4, 38 KOs) from Pensacola, Fla.,—both destined for the Hall of Fame—have built a staggering list of accomplishments and will enter the ring for this highly anticipated 12-round fight at or below the catch weight of 170 pounds.
Jones is an eight-time world champion, winning belts in the middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions, becoming the first former middleweight champion to win a world heavyweight crown in over 100 years.
Trinidad is a five-time world champion with a stunning career knockout ratio of 80 percent that has won titles in the welterweight, junior middleweight and middleweight classes. He also holds the distinction of having defeated three Olympic Games gold medalists: Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker, “The Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya and David Reid.
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Monday, September 10, 2007
You Can’t Hit What You Can’t See: Roy Jones Jr vs Tito Trinidad Preview
What’s all the excitement about? Maybe I’m missing something here. Is the cagey Don King really going to sell this fight to the public and get away with it? It sure does look like it. Hats off to “The Don”. He’s going to pull off another one.
Felix Trinidad is coming back for three reasons. Money for him, money for Don King and the fact that he is envious of the attention countryman Miguel Cotto is getting. Roy Jones Jr. was for what it’s worth, the heavyweight champion of the world at one time. Tito’s heyday was at 147. Yes he had a couple of nice showings at 160 but then Bernard Hopkins exposed him. Winky Wright boxed his ears off. How can anyone think that this will be a fight that Tito can win?
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Friday, August 17, 2007
Tito Trinidad, Roy Jones Jr Quotes
Tito Trinidad: “I always want to fight great fighters and I am coming back to fight Roy Jones Jr. because he is one of the greatest in the sport.”
Don King: “The fight will take place at 170 pounds. We are leaning toward Madison Square Garden but nothing is set at this time.”
Tito: “I am going to feel very good at that weight and I feel that I will feel great at that fight.”
Don King: “Tito Trinidad and Roy Jones will be doing color [on the pay-per-view telecast] for Vargas vs. Mayorga on September 8 and Chad Dawson on September 29 and Maskaev vs. Sam Peter on Oct. 6. Roy Jones will be his inimitable self as only he knows how to do it. And Tito will do the Spanish version. And they will be on Juan Diaz vs. Julio Diaz, the double D. Roy Jones will be doing rap music and Tito will be doing Reggaetón. Then they will go in the ring and fight. It is taking my breath away. This is a fight made in heaven… quality and competitiveness.”
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Thursday, August 16, 2007
Trinidad Signs to Fight Jones Jr
Felix Trinidad officially signs the contract that will match him up against Roy Jones Jr on January 26 of next year.
Monday, July 02, 2007
EEC - July 2, 2007
News, Notes, and Rumors:
- The rumors are true: Felix Trinidad will be coming out of retirement to fight later this year, most likely in December.
- Oleg Maskaev’s showdown against Samuel Peter has been moved from September 29th to October 6th on Showtime and will now take place at Madison Square Garden according to Don King. Showtime is looking to fill the vacant September 29th weekend spot with a possible matchup between Antonio Tarver and Chad Dawson, provided they are both victorious in their bouts on June 9th.
- Contract talks between the camps of Jermain Taylor and Kelly Pavlik are almost finished according to Lou DiBella. Taylor would end up defending his middleweight titles on September 29th on HBO. DiBella says that he is currently attempting to hold the event at Boardwalk Hall.
- NetBoxe is reporting that WBC and WBA Cruiserweight Champion Jean-Marc Mormeck is currently in talks with the camp of David Haye for a possible fight on September 28th.
- Nikolai Valuev and Vladimir Virchis look set to fight at some point this fall. The deadline for purse bids for this fight is July 30th according to Per Ake Persson of Boxing Scene.
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Thursday, June 28, 2007
What Will Tito Bring to the Table?
If… Felix Trinidad does decide to return to ring wars, how much impact will he have on the current state of the game? He has not fought in over two years and that was a disappointing shutout loss to Winky Wright. Before that Bernard Hopkins took him to school. What makes him think he can be a factor now? I know his return would generate a lot of dollars. Felix is very popular with the fans and deservedly so. He is a great people person and he has been a credit to the game. My question is, does he really think he can beat Floyd Mayweather Jr.? In these last two idle years has he discovered a way to beat Hopkins or Wright?
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Friday, February 02, 2007
EEC - February 2, 2007
Happy Groundhog Day everybody! We have a busy weekend ahead of us…
News, Notes, and Rumors:
- The WBC announced yesterday that it has stripped the WBC Flyweight Title from Omar Nino because Nino has tested positive for methamphetamine according to post-fight testing results done after his November 18th bout against Brian Viloria.
Ironically Viloria and Edgar Sosa will fight for the title in the coming months. The winner of that bout will then have to face Nino who has been giving number one contender status since he was unaware that the drug had been put into his system.
“In light of the fact that the WBC believes that Nino did not voluntarily commit this infraction and considering that his clean record has won him the trust of this organization ... we are declaring that Nino will be the challenger for whoever is the new champion,” a WBC statement said.
- The Saint Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting that Felix Trinidad will be at ringside to watch Cory Spinks fight Rodney Jones this weekend. He’s just going to see a decent bout, right? Not exactly…
Spink’s trainer, Kevin Cunningham, has confirmed that Trinidad will be at ringside with Don King to scout Spinks as a possible opponent in the near future…
“Don’s bringing Felix Trinidad in for this fight,” Cunningham said. “He might come out of retirement. Fernando Vargas is another possibility. But my thing is this: We want to keep chugging away, keep grinding. And eventually that big marquee fight will be there for us. And hopefully we can bring another big fight back to St. Louis.’’
- Paulie Malignaggi will be the in-studio guest for ESPN’s Friday Night Fights this evening…
Weekend Fights
Friday -
Zuri Lawrence vs Dominick Guinn - Rochester, New York - Heavyweight (ESPN 2)
James Kirkland vs Billy Lyell - Santa Ynez, California - Junior Middleweight (Showtime)
Timothy Bradley vs Manuel Garnica - Santa Ynez, California - Junior Welterweight (Showtime)
Saturday -
Tomasz Adamek vs Chad Dawson - Kissimmee, Florida - WBC Light Heavyweight Title (Showtime)
Jesus Chavez vs Julio Diaz - Kissimmee, Florida - IBF Lightweight Title (Showtime)
Cory Spinks vs Rodney Jones - Kissimmee, Florida - IBF Junior Middleweight Title (Showtime)
Laila Ali vs Gwendolyn O’Neil - Kempton Park, South Africa - Women’s Super Middleweight Title
Sunday -
Naoufel Ben Rabah vs Lovemore Ndou - Sydney, Australia - IBF Junior Welterweight Title Eliminator
Paul Briggs vs Andre Thysse - Sydney, Australia - Light Heavyweight
Sakio Bika vs Rupert Van Aswegen - Sydney, Australia - Super Middleweight
Some Good Reads
Boxing Scene: Chasing Marciano’s Ghost: What’s in a Record?
MaxBoxing: Friday Night Fights Shuffle
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Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Trinidad Wants De La Hoya
Well if this keeps up, Floyd Mayweather might have to wait a while before he can get at Oscar De La Hoya…
Felix Trinidad heard about De La Hoya’s meeting with Manhattan reporters and has responded to the claims that Trinidad met with Oscar to discuss a possible rematch and more.
Trinidad: De La Hoya is a coward
“I am withdrawn and I continue to be withdrawn”, said Trinidad. “But, to show respect to all my people, I am willing to do a one big fight. I never have avoided a fight with (De La Hoya). Six times he was offering to fight me, he was scared and he never signed.”
Now that De La Hoya is getting exactly what he wants, it’s time to get down to specifics. Trinidad has stated that he wants to fight at 160 lbs with no exception. While I’m sure that De La Hoya will have no problem with that seeing how he’s probably walking around at that weight right now anyway, it’s going to create a whole different fight than in 1999 when the two fought as welterweights.
Trinidad is also saying that De La Hoya is fibbing about meeting with him down in Puerto Rico.
“The story that I have met with him is not true”, Trinidad said. “I have not spoken with him and have not authorized anybody to speak to him on my behalf. In my life, since 1999, I have spoken with him three times. When I was in Miami, another time in Los Angeles, and the third time at the last fight that there was in the Choliseo. And never was it said to me that he wanted to fight with me. We have spoken of other things, of his boxers, but never has said me ‘Tito, I want to fight with you.’ “
Oh Oscar, you sly fox. Trinidad says that you are just using his name to try and make publicity for himself and he’s probably right.
Now Oscar has yet another decision to make: Trinidad or Mayweather?
Monday, September 11, 2006
Boxing and 9/11
When tragedy struck our country, boxing was the furthest thing from the minds of those involved with the sport…
‘Surreal’ boxing scene before and after 9/11
There comes a point during the morning commute from the suburbs of northern Virginia to downtown Washington, D.C., when the buildings and trees that line the side of the road fall away, and there is nothing but the Potomac River beneath you and the imperial grandeur of the nation’s capital ahead.
On the Metro, the city’s subway rail system, the blue and yellow line trains emerge from a tunnel to cross the river before once more disappearing beneath ground, and as they do so, the first glimpse of the memorials on the Mall almost invariably has tourists reaching for their cameras. Five years after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, the sight of the memorials, of the White House, of Congress, and indeed of the Pentagon, are reminders that, although New York City took the brunt of the devastation of that day, D.C. was a target, too.
“It could have been us,” reflected D.C. boxing writer Gary “Digital” Williams. “That’s the scary thing.”“Usually, my trip home by subway took about 30 minutes, tops. I couldn’t take the subway at all, because the subways were completely jammed. That’s the thing I remember most about that day, being not that far from the White House and seeing a real nice part of the city turn into complete and utter chaos. That whole week, boxing was just the furthest thing from my mind. ”
For Hopkins, chaos began months before tragedy
Anyone remember the crazy stunts that Bernard Hopkins pulled on Felix Trinidad during their press conferences before the fight? Throwing the Puerto Rican flag on the ground, denouncing Trinidad’s heritage and his country. Hopkins was public enemy number one in Puerto Rico for a few months. However after September 11th, all of that changed.
The bout was cancelled and officials had to set a new date amidst all of the chaos going on in the country. A few days after the attacks they decided on September 29th, and Hopkins’ actions and thoughts came back to the forefront…
“I wanted to take his most important thing, the thing he has motivating him, his country his fans,” the boxer says. “Then he had the pressure of winning for himself and his country.”
That pressure percolated in Trinidad’s head for an extra spell, as five days after the terror onslaught, the bout was reset for Sept. 29.
DiBella feels that the extra time did Trinidad no favors. “The time didn’t affect Hopkins, a physical specimen in conditioning,” he says. “But Tito had peaked. And he had to hold at that weight.”
Come fight night, it can’t be said that Hopkins’ mindset was all placidity and focus. The Garden hummed with a mixture of anticipation and lingering sadness; this was the first major sporting event held in Manhattan after the Twin Towers collapsed. The 10-bell salute to the fallen prior to the fight hit the hearts of the 20,000 in attendance.
Love, and a promise of violence, were in the air when Trinidad came to the ring in an NYPD hat.
Hopkins came in wearing a red executioner’s mask which sent a message: there would be no capitulation to political correctness because of the immense tragedy 18 days before. There was business to take care of, Hopkins knew, and boxing is a blood business. Better for the other guy’s to spill than mine.
Some butterflies did take up residence in his gut leading up to the fight, he admits, though. Reporters reminded him of the attacks constantly and while he robotically spoke of the need to be “professional,” fears did creep in. A packed MSG would have been a prime target, an enclosed target, for a terror cell to hit, and Hopkins tried to dispel that “what if” scenario whenever it crept in.
“Fight night, there were K9s in the building and CIA guys, guys with mikes in their ear,” he said. “I said to myself, ‘This ain’t business as usual.’ But I knew I had a job to do.”
But in the ring, it was business as usual—for Hopkins, anyway. He schooled the 28-year-old Trinidad from the outset, offering a master class in pugilism to the limited left hooker who won perhaps two rounds before his father rushed in the ring to halt the bout at 1:18 of the 12th.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Oscar Narrows It Down
Oscar De La Hoya has confirmed that he will indeed fight again in 2007. He’s even gone as far as to narrow down his list of possible opponents to two: Floyd Mayweather and Felix Trinidad.
De La Hoya, who met with a group of reporters for dinner in Manhattan on Tuesday night, said he met with Trinidad recently over breakfast at his house and they talked about possibility of fighting the rematch.
“When I saw Tito I knew it was possible (the rematch),’’ De La Hoya said. “The rumblings I’m getting on the island (Puerto Rico) is he’s running everyday.’‘
De La Hoya and Trinidad are neighbors in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. He said they ran into each other at a local restaurant one morning while they were both having breakfast. De La Hoya said they later drove back to his house and continued to talk about the possibility of a rematch.
De La Hoya said he will most likely open negotiations soon with both Trinidad and Mayweather and whomever he can make a deal with first that’s the fight he’ll take.
“Negotiations are the only hurdle,’’ he said. “I think Trinidad will be easier to make than Mayweather…I’d like to have something signed by December, definitely by January.
“My choice now is Floyd. But if it gets complicated then I have Felix because really wants that fight. I saw it in his eyes. The tension was in the air.’’