I see a lot of people saying that Tito wasn't much at 160, and was a blown-up WW. I don't think that's quite accurate, as he was a big guy for WW, and also had a great short run at 154. Trinidad had already started to fall in love a bit too much with his power (look at the Carr fight in 94' and then watch him in 00-01), but was still a guy with a lot of tools. Monster left hook, good straight right hand, heavy jab, picked punches well. Tito dominated the consensus #2 MW at the time in William Joppy. However, it was a pretty poor division. Joppy was a decent titleholder. Trinidad got dominated by Hopkins, but Hopkins is an ATG. Then there were his wins over Cherifi and Mayorga, and his awful performance against Winky. Overall, what are your opinions of Tito as a MW?
Yeah he was at the least a big welter, could've been considered a solid 154, and probably only one clear weight size disadvantaged at 160. Thing is Hopkins was already a big middle, still though, tremendous win by Hopkins by at least in the way he won. I wasn't around on any message boards at the time he fought Winky and was shocked to learn he was heavily favored against him. Me and a frien of mine were convinced Tito would not beat Winky beforehand. The way Tito learned on his front foot made him a prime candidate for that great and steady pumping jab Winky had, we knew he would not get past it, it played exactly the way we thought. So I don't hold that loss much against Tito either, stylistic mismatch which I was shocked Tito even took the fight. I give his performance at middle a 7.
He was a big but natural 147 pounder. He fought there for years without having trouble making weight. Trinidad would always lose to Hopkins. Styles make fights, there's no shame in seeking greatness like Trinidad did. After the Hopkins fight though, he became a part time boxer. The Mayorga fight was a very good win, Mayorga was the undisputed WW champ and just lost a close decision against Spinks, a fight I thought Mayorga edged. But again, he was a part time boxer after, it was dumb for him to fight Wright after being semi retired, but it's respectable that he wanted to fight the best and be a great. My favorite fighter of all time, truly a great champ.
All that talk of him being a blown up ww is revisionist history. Plenty of guys move up in weight, and he didnt rush it. He was very impressive until be ran into the bigger and simply better Hopkins. I imagine he'd have reigned as the mw champ for a while had he not.
Wrong. Tito didn't belong there. Do not confused tall with big. Tito is tall but has a very skinny frame. Very skinny legs. He didn't carry the weight well at all. His punching output also went down a lot when he gained the weight
Trinidad was a strapping welterweight...at middleweight he was blown up and weak. Let's face it he won 1 out of 24 rounds against Wright and Hopkins at 160lbs. Beat mayorga....mayorga. Joppy was a solid win. He had success cause Joppy was really a 154lber. Tito peaked at 154. Even then he no longer had the physicality he had at WW.
Tito towards the end of his welterweight reign he was fighting to make 147. Tito was a great welterweight i do think Oscar beat him clearly at 147 he looked good at 154. he was never going to beat hopkins Tito could not deal with guys who could jab and move and make tito pick his feet and not get set plus Tito was left hook or die for years hopkins and oscar took that away from prime Tito. In a alternate universe Tito would have had a good career at middleweight he would have unified all 3 belts at time and then eventually lost the tittle he would be a higher ATG. The people who try to act like tito was just out of place are trying to justify him not being able to hurt hopkins
Hopkins was better than Tito. He had the style advantage. But I don't think he was exposed. Hopkins was prime.
Yep, he stayed at 147 for the last couple of years looking for big fights (like Oscar), he had sued Don King, I think in 1995, to try to get bigger fights (namely Pernell Whitaker). 1995-98 were sort of lost years as he was facing overmatched opposition. He had moved up to 154 in 1997 to face Troy Waters in a title eliminator for Terry Norris's WBC 154 lb. belt. Then he went back down to 147, figuring he could get big fights there, and eventually got the bouts with Whitaker and Oscar in 1999. The Quartey bout in 1998 fell apart when Quartey pulled out of the Tito fight to fight Oscar, and then Quartey got sued by his promotional group for doing so. When Tito went to 160 in 2001, I'd say he was one division above his ideal weight class at the time at 154. A little out of place, but not as big drop-off from 154 to MW like Oscar had. I'd still pick Tito at middleweight over lineal champs like Miguel Cotto, Sergio Martinez, maybe Jermain Taylor who was so defensively (and technically) flawed.
Joppy fought at 160 and above for pretty much his whole career. Trinidad was his 10th title defense. The whole talk from Joppy beforehand was him talking about how him being a natural middleweight would help him. Look at his weights. http://boxrec.com/boxer/4995
Those wins vs joppy and mayorga had everyone fooled, including myself. Those 2 have terrible defense. Back in 2001, i didn't know who hopkins was, but if i knew, it was obvious he was gonna beat tito. Tito was the perfect 154. Too big for 147, small for 160
