I think if Tito boxes smartly, he stops Julian around 9. But this is a fight where the 1st bomb thrown by either could end the fight
Damn good fight that could go either way. Jackson's chin is slightly better than Tito's...I think. It's close. But I see Tito succumbing to Jackson's power, whether it's one shot or multiple. I also see Tito hitting the deck early but coming back to stop Jackson in the later rounds. He'd have to be extremely careful because that one shot that drops him might keep him on that canvas soft spot.
Considering what Jackson did to Norris, and the fact that he is the bigger man in there, I would have to pick the Hawk by KO. But, Tito getting up off the deck to stop Jackson is certainly a possibility.
This makes a lot of sense too. I was of the thought that Tito's boxing would see him through if he fought smart. But we all know about Mr Jackson's power.
I've always felt that Julian should be the favorite here. OBVIOUSLY, it's a close call, but I'd pick Jackson. Trinidad is the historically better/greater fighter, but the styles favor Jackson winning more times than not. The Hawk in 4.
The thing is, there's not an ASTRONOMICAL gap between the two in terms of skills. Jackson was far from crude - he could box, especially before he fell in love with his power, and he had excellent technique. Trinidad was a good technical boxer, but it's not like he could box like his three countrymen, Ortiz, Gomez, and Benitez. But going back to prime Jackson's skills - look no further than the Drayton fight. Jackson clinically took Drayton apart before putting him sleep, firing off beautiful combos, then stepping around. Jackson was a better boxer than he gets credit for, and like I said, Tito was no master.
Think this might be one of those fights which never really comes to the boil with both men reluctant to engage. Can't see a stoppage and think it would be a dreary, scrappy one with a disputed points verdict at the end. Back in the real world, damn, another tough one to call. But I think I've got to edge towards Trinidad. I don't necessarily have any concrete logic to back that up, because Jackson has the better, slightly more devastating and bona fide one-shot power, and probably a slightly better chin, too. But on the other hand, he did lose some shoot-outs (McCallum, McClellan), whereas Trinidad - though he often had to get up off the deck in them - never did, and only finally came conclusively unstuck against outstanding all-round boxers who dissected him slowly. But then again, McCallum and McClellan are generally a class above (metaphorically and quite literally in a weight sense) the guys against whom Trinidad had his most vicious, back-and-forth brawls such as Campas and Vargas. Getting up to win against those guys ain't the same as getting up against Jackson to do so. I tend to think that Trinidad was the better late-rounds fighter of the pair, so I guess it all depends on if he can make his better fundamentals count and avoid getting flattened in the first five or six rounds. It's possible that both could bomb the other out early, but I think it's much more likely that Trinidad stops Jackson late than vice versa. If the fight went past the mid-way stage, I'd expect Tito to be in command. Not with any great conviction, I'll plump for Tito to win an absolute barnstormer, with both men hurt aplenty and probably each decked at some stage, but with the Puerto Rican somehow hanging on and eventually taking Jackson out around the eighth or ninth round.
