Prime Napoles vs Prime Trinidad for WW Title (15 rounds). Is Trinidad too big & powerful for Napoles? Or will Napoles beat up Trinidad, like Jose did to Curtis Cokes, who was about the same size as Trinidad?
Napoles decks, batters and alternately outboxes and outclasses Trinidad in shockingly easy fashion en route to a 14th round tko.
Interesting that Napoles, Trinidad, & Cokes had reaches in the 72-73" range, though Trinidad was the tallest at 5'-11", about 4" taller than Napoles.
I think CC had a better chin than Tito, thus, his face ended up being rendered into hamburger....whereas Felix would have tasted the canvas on several occasions...that height advantage would have been totallly useless vs Mantequilla.
And he truly didn't...and we're talking about a proud, accomplished, established champion in Curtis Cokes....a fighter and champion whose career I followed avidly...then one day in 1969 I read the sports page...and a couple of months later I got that edition of Ring Magazine that featured Napoles-Cokes on the cover....it really blew me away.
We're talking about an all-time top 5 WW against a probable all-time top 20 WW. Napoles would win because he was the superior boxer and could hit hard enough to trouble Trinidad. But... I don't see it as a completely one-sided affair.
napoles takes the left hook away from Felix. Academic what happens afterwards and it would turn into a cat & mouse fight before Napoles closes the show. Not a good matchup for Trinidad.
I have a lot of respect for Trinidad. He was a heckuva force at Welterweight. About 12 successful defenses. Kind of an uneven reign though. I have to watch more Napoles. He was smaller but his quality was exceptional.
Trinidad size wouldn't trouble Naples at WW. Monzon did at MW but that was outside Naples comfort zone. Naples on pts.
