Felix Trinidad vs Marlon Starling

Even though Tito was above his best weight class, Tito struggled to penetrate Winky Wrights tight defence, Starling has a similar defence although he doesn't have a jab like Wright.

But I'm gonna go with Starling in an upset win.

 

Trinidad was better than Starlin and anybody he ever fought, levels.

 

Using the Winky fight against Tito has become popular. Very few fighters have had a past prime loss used to underrate them as much. Tito had been retired nearly three years, already all the hard fights had taken his prime and the Hopkins beating. He went from a fighter who punched for openings to a fighter who waited for them. Huge difference.

Starling would be tough as he was awkward, durable, had excellent defense etc; but he doesn’t have enough to beat Tito. I’d say Trinidad solid decision.

 

Starling was a notably disengaged fighter, often on a big stage. There are many things that he could do to frustrate Trinidad, but I don't know what he could do to win.
A Starling victory would require Trinidad doing a bunch of things wrong all at the same time. And he never did that.
The most likely outcome is Trinidad poking at Starling with the jab and right hand, ripping some shots to the body. Starling would land the odd counter. Everybody that bought the pay per view would be mad. Trinidad by UD.

 

I'm going to side with Starling at his best by decision. Starling is underrated and the rematch he and Curry had was an in fighting clinic. We know now what a fine level Curry was performing at around this time. Starling, tho never overly winning, gave him a really good challenge. He could be somewhat inconsistent but when he was on he was a heckuva welter who could control the pace and style a fight was fought at.

Starlings defense is sublime and he was one of the very best defensive fighters of his day. His technique is tight, he can punch, he can take a punch, he can counterpunch and has good wind.

 

Starlings high guard defense style is just a terrible matchup for Tito. Tito would just carve open his defense easily with his bodypunching and tremendous knockout power. Not to mention Tito is the much bigger guy. Starling's constant weaving and ducking is simply not enough to escape Tito's assault, he doesn't a possess a good jab and doesn't really have the chin either. I see Tito repeatedly drove Starling on the ropes and slowly but surely battering him till Starling became so stiff the ref had no choice but to stop the fight.

 

I like Marlon in this by a decision.

 

Well said. I don't know much about Starling so I won't comment on the outcome, but the way people talked about Trinidad in his prime compared to how they talk about him now, in retrospect, is vastly different.

 

My question to you though is if Winky Wright was a Welterweight, would Tito beat him ? I don't think so. The main reason Tito lost was because he got hit at will with the jab, and couldn't penetrate Wright's defence. And Tito hadn't been retired for 3 years, he fought Mayorga in his comeback fight and looked impressive.

The flip side to your argument, is I agree Tito wasn't at his absolute best vs Hopkins and Wright or at his best weight. But my counter argument will always be if Wright and Hopkins were Welterweights would he beat them ? Tito looked good at Middleweight destroying Joppy no one claimed he was past his best there. I think it was more to do with Hopkins, Wright's style rather than the weight.

 

Tito looke awful v Jones who went on to get schooled by Calzaghe, he was finished. If we`re talking about a welter Winky keep in mind that he was a lot bigger than Starling, also Trnidad was 5'11 and a lot better than Breland.

 

Trinidad vs Jones was at 170 not Middleweight, and Trinidad had been retired for 4 years without comeback fight. This fight has no comparison to what i'm talking about, Trinidad looked impressive at Middleweight destroying Joppy and Mayorga. Before he fought Wright and Hopkins, my question is were people saying Trinidad was shot going into these fights ?

People like to bring up that Trinidad only got schooled by Wright and Hopkins because of the weight, i tend to disagree it was more the style of Hopkins and Wright. When did Trinidad ever meet a really good defensive fighter at Welterweight ? i can only think of a shot Pernell Whitaker.

I'm not trying to sound like a hater of Trinidad, i don't dislike him and i enjoy watching his fights. But i've always thought it was more the styles of Wright, Hopkins, that gave him the most problems not the weight.

 

Trinidad was the 2-1 favorite against Hopkins so there was certainly nothing being said about Tito being washed up or the like.

 

Starling beat Simon Brown and Lupe Aquino.
Lupe could knock a house down and Starling easily beat him up.
Starling actually beat the better competition at welterweight then Felix did.
Starling too hard to hit for Felix and too strong on the inside for Felix.
Starling was never stopped in his entire career.