Felix Trinidad v. Gene Fullmer at 160

Been a hot minute since you posted Kev good to see you on the comeback trail.
Also I back Gene for this one.

 

I love Tito, but you couldn't have found a fight that was more wrong for him. For one, Tito was no middleweight, despite winning a strap. He just didn't have the frame for it. And there was no one who had a more physical game than Fullmer. Fullmer lacks only the big KO punch, so if it is stopped, it would be late in the fight with Fullmer inflicting a bad beating. But I'll say a distance fight with Fullmer a one-sided winner.

 

I don't think Tito could hurt Fulmer with a claw hammer at 160 and I really like Trinidad but at 147 . Tito simply doesn't have the movement to keep away from the caveman.

 

Yeah this is a bad fight for Tito. His power, his biggest asset, isn't going to do him much good against a tank like Fullmer, and his lack of movement and willingness to engage are going to lead to him getting mauled in exchanges. I think Tito gets badly beaten up and stopped late.

 

I'm sure I'm in the minority here but I like Tito and his deadly accuracy more than Fullmer's strength and pressure. I could totally see Fullmer eating a left hook from Tito like he did against Robinson. As strong as he was he was very hittable and that is not good against a puncher like Trinidad.

 

Fullmer is too strong too physical and just a none stop battering ram of a fighter. He jumps out of the gate and overwhelms Tito IMO. Fullmer TKO 9

 

Yep, I think some people don't realize that Tito was the bigger man. Fullmer fought in the same day weigh in era while Tito who was a huge WW had to cut weight and had more than enough pop at 160 to hurt anyone.

I'm not comparing Tito to Ray Robinson as overall fighter's but I do think Tito's left hook was every but as hard or harder than Robinson's. We all saw what Robinson's left hook did to Fullmer.

 

It's true that Trinidad isn't really smaller or lighter than Fullmer, he'd have been a good sized middle back in the 50s and would've struggled to make 147 same day imo. A bigger puncher than Fullmer no doubt and better, more aesthetically pleasing combination puncher. He was a lot leaner than Fullmer though with thinner legs, a less powerful base, lesser upper body strength, a lesser chin, inferior infighting ability and not as dirty or underhanded. Fullmer was the stronger fighter and more imposing physical presence of the two easily I'd say. Better footwork too and awkwardly better at fighting on the back foot where necessary, where Tito had rigid footwork and wasn't effective when being pushed back. No way does he throw that left hook like SRR moving backwards with that kind of counter timing imo. He'd be dependent on knocking Fullmer out or stopping him and other than the freakish occurrence against arguably the greatest fighter ever, past prime though he was, Fullmer walked through some hard, hard punchers without blinking. I get the feeling it'd be like an uglier, but perhaps less one-sided version of the Hopkins fight in some ways. I'm no fan of Fullmer either and I really like Trinidad.

 

Someone the other day spent pages arguing that Foster could somehow be 180lbs and overdid the cut and that’s why he was 170lbs for some fights.

 

Fullmer went up against better punchers than Tito. He beat Robinson twice, knocked out Florentino Fernandez (and ate his shots), lost only a decision to Eduardo Lausse (also ate his shots) and had trilogy slugfest against a bigger, physically stronger and younger D*ck Tiger (at the time, he was already past his prime). His last fight was good stoppage just to save Fullmer becuz he literally took everything from tiger and was constatly fighting back!

I relly can't see how Trinidad could beat this guy let alone kayo him...

 

This could get ugly very early on, which could put the result in doubt. On balance, you'd have to favor Fullmer for all the reasons Tin Ribs pointed out. Fullmer would have to fight aggressively though; Fullmer on the back foot unnecessarily allows for Tito's precision punching to come to the fore.