Felix Trinidad a great fighter

Agreed. Tito was a sublime attacking talent, legitimate KO power in both hands, but in particular that sledgehammer of a left hook.

Even though his world title run at 147 was so exceptional, he was probably even more devastating at 154, in a similar way that Hearns was. His absolute best had past him by at 160, but he still had enough to blow away a decent champion there in William Joppy.

After that 400 million dollar farce two weekends ago I stuck Trinidad vs Vargas on YouTube to remind myself why boxing is the best sport on earth.

 

Most of you post is spot on but Reid should have never been in the ring with Trinidad.....way to green but they rushed him because of his eye problems to cash out.

He had to blatantly low blow Vargas to get the upper hand despite almost getting rid of him in the first because Vargas was coming back strong.

Joppy was a midget....nice guy but did not belong at middle, they matched him with methusalem Duran.,,,enough said.

But I agree, Trinidad was a beast with very under rated boxing skills and he also had a excellent jab which he later abandoned because he fell in love with his power.

One more thing, if Quartey, ODH and Trinidad (all prime) would have been around at 147 at Pac's time he would have never moved up and stayed at 140

Trinidad would have murdered Pac, Marquez, Margerito , Cotto and Clottey.

 

During the height of Tito mania in 2001, I thought he was overrated. As his career has ended, it seemed as if he's often underrated.

In his early years as a WW titlist, I thought he showed better boxing skills, plodded less, and was less in love with his power. For instance, against Oba Carr, he got dropped early, then came back and gradually broke him down with a beating. He picked his punches well, threw some shots with more leverage behind them, others he didn't load up on and looked more concerned with just landing.

Unfortunately he spent 1995-98 fighting overmatched opposition, thanks to promotional issues with Don King. He had wanted to fight Pernell Whitaker back in 1995, and unfortunately they didn't fight then, as it would have been a better and more competitive matchup. A fight with Ike Quartey also fell thru in 1998, as Quartey pulled out and signed to fight Oscar De La Hoya, resulting in lawsuits between Ike and his promotional company.

Tito looked pretty poor versus DLH, as DLH took advantage of Tito's weaknesses with straight right hands and tendency to follow instead of cut the ring off. Although I don't think it was as bad of a decision as others do, I still thought DLH won it. I'll give Trinidad some credit though. There was a reason why DLH, in his words, tired and his legs were shaking. And why he spent so much of the last 3 rounds running, despite Gil Clancy's instruction to "box, box, box" and Robert Alcazar telling Oscar "make sure they know you won the round". Tito's power probably had something to do with it.

Trinidad's power ended several fights with bodyshots. While he didn't end fights with single shots to the head, he could drop/hurt you with a head shot and then finish you later in the round. Or change the whole momentum of the fight with one shot, as he did in his 2 title-winning bouts at 154.

After 6 rounds, Tito was losing to David Reid. One left hook dropped Reid, badly hurting him, and Tito spent the rest of the fight brutalizing Reid. The fight should have been stopped in the 11th.

The Fernando Vargas fight is one of my favorite, and most watched fights, ever. Tito countered a Vargas jab with a left hook that had Vargas reeling back, leading to the first of 2 knockdowns in the 1st. Vargas had turned the momentum back in his favor, dropping Tito in the 4th and soundly outboxing him in the 5th. Again, a single punch turned the momentum back in Tito's favor. With about 30 seconds left the 6th, Tito landed a long right hand (Larry Merchant said it landed around the neck) that had Vargas holding on. Tito finished strong with a nice combo to end the round. Vargas had some more success after this, but Tito kept getting to him and doing more damage, and eventually stopping Vargas in the 12th.

I wasn't ever totally impressed with Reid, he had some athleticism and speed, a nice right hand, but lots of flaws and that droopy eye. But put it this way, I'd pick him over Canelo Alvarez, who had 3 times as many pro fights as him, and was considered the top 154 lb fighter around. Tito fought in a stronger era than the one we see currently. Vargas was a very good fighter, clearly beating Ike Quartey in an exciting fight and fighting on near-even terms with Winky Wright (I had it 115-113 Winky). I think that shows Vargas's quality. He had heavy hands, could brawl and also had good boxing skills and punch selection, okay defense, nice jab.

 

A lot of people say Tito wasn't too good as a MW. I'm not sure whether that was the case for whether it was the caliber and style of his opponents there.

Bernard Hopkins was one of the greatest middleweights ever, and Winky was an excellent fighter.

For what it's worth, William Joppy was the 2nd best middleweight in the world when Tito destroyed him.

 

Trinidad was a great offensive threat but his defense would have always made him struggle above welterweight. His overall strength allowed him to walk down the tricker boxers at welter, but he was somewhat exposed as he moved up. Overall a great fighter at welterweight.

 

Just barely an all time great.enough convincing wins over top rated
Fighters Carr,campas,Vargas,Reid,Joppy,mayorga,blocker,Pendleton,camacho victory over a declining Whitaker is still underrated.The only man to ever dominate Whitaker.was a 116-112 loser to oscar in my opinion.I am a huge fan of his and it is often underestimated how exciting he was even the fights he lost.jones and Hopkins fights had sustained action and we all know they weren't exciting in every fight.joppy almost did a backwards somersault.Mayorga and Vargas could easily have been fight of the year.the case against Trinidad being great is the fact that he went spells in some of his biggest fights losing round after round( Oscar,winky,Hopkins) and was soundly outclassed on more than own occasion.overall memorable performances and classic fights.

 

Whitaker was strung out on coke when he faced Trinidad. Whitaker was done when he fought Tito.

 

Not Trinidad's fault.whitaker was still regarded as top15 p4p at the time.i know Whitaker would have beaten Tito when sweet pea was in his prime.

 

He is a HOF, arguably ATG. What really hurt his legacy though was his onesided loss to Winky Wright in my opinion.It is not like that that was a shot version of Tito.

 

Great great fighter. Doesn't get the credit he deserves for his performance against Oscar.

A lot of close rounds imo and I would have scored it a draw, no issue with Tito getting it.

Wright and B-Hop were a step too fat but that says more about how great they were.

At WW I favour him over a whole host of names.

Think Mosley smokes him though.

 

You have to have some pure aggression favouring criteria to give Trinidad a draw. DLH clearly outlanded Tito in most if not all rounds. But ofcourse didn't fight for the most of rounds and ran for large periods of the fight.