Felix Trinidad - Championship Profile (Video)

Yeah, he's a bit like El Terriblé and Sonny Liston in that regard. Everyone knows how hard they hit, but a lot of people forget how well they could box.

Tito is awesome, definitely one of my favourites from that era. Absolute powerhouse, and when you look at his common opponents to other ATGs at the time, he often did marginally better.

 

I’ll watch this after work later on. I was a big Tito fan. One of my all-time favorite fighters. Such a fun fighter and a great guy.

 

I want to thank everyone that built him up to a 7-2 favorite over Hopkins.

 

Felix Tito Trinidad is one of my favorite fighters, too bad that he moved up to middleweight. I think that he could have ruled the 147 lb division as well as the 154 lb weight class for a long while. He had a very wicked right hand, his recuperative powers were amazing after a knockdown. i followed him after his title winning knockout win over Maurice Blocker in 1993. His fights were televised on Showtime on Saturday nights. It makes me wonder what a dream fight against another countryman, Wilfred El Radar Benitez would have looked like at 154 lbs.

 

Agreed. The electricity behind this guy during his prime was insane. I heard a boxing writer once say if miguel Cotto is considered a killer, tito was a serial killer. His haters really like to define his entire career based on his comeback when he was a part time boxer. Or point to the hopkins loss. But I dont think there is any shame in losng to an atg middleweight who was really a light heavyweight that was disciplined enough to make 160 - and it too him 11 rounds of non stop beating on him to do it.

 

Not easy putting big money on underdogs. But if you can pick some you can clean up especially compared to how long it takes to earn the same dollars when you are giving the odds.

But this fight was a risky venture for sure. An independant taking on a DKP fighter is very very risky no matter how you want to look at it. And Hopkins was 36 afterall. And the sport has very few old guy wins against undefeated pedigreed youth.

But folks thought Felix was not only going to win, they thought he'd stop the old guy. But they had watched a whole lot more of Trinidad than they had watched of Hopkins. Most figured if it even went the distance, it'd be a boxing lesson like the Jones fight was. So, not even a competitive bout. And a lopsided outcome.


But Hopkins had improved quite a bit since the Jones bout. And this is a different style to deal with. And he had defended the title numerous times. Plus the Hopkins grinder style is not tv friendly anyway, so lots of people think his style is very vulnerable.

 

Yeah, I always thought Liston was a misunderstood fighter. Slightly overrated, physically, but a marvel of sound fundamentals who doesn't get recognition for it. I think the whole 'can't cut off the ring' myth, is just that, too. He had all the skills, know-how and foot-work to do it, us was just slow.

Not to derail your thread with some juicy HW opinions. I really liked this vid (as per), didn't realize how many title defences Tito racked up TBH. Cheers Rummy!

 

This vid made me want to rewatch some Trinidad fights, so I watched the Vargas, Joppy, Carr, Mayorga, Stephens, Blocker and Campas. Some very entertaining fights here, my only gripe is that he hit too hard! He'd get in an exchange and the other guy was down before things could really get going. The Vargas fight is an exception, but not a perfect one.

Tito's whole skillset was, as Rummy said, very underrated. He was sharp, fast, tough and gritty. He had excellent form, could counter well and cut the ring off nicely. His body work was nasty, of course. Actually, I think he gets a little bit misunderstood. Early on he didn't really go off on offence with his debilitating body work, he'd normally sit back and let someone come to him whilst he felt them out. Then after he had a good feel for things he'd counter their jab with straight rights, and once he was warmed up he'd start going forward. He's like Duran a bit in that aspect, people often forget to mention the first few rounds where he didn't just jump on people.

I also don't buy the whole 'robbery' call of the De La Hoya fight. I had that a draw but you could give it to either guy.