Trinidad Retirement a Ploy?

By Dennis Principe

07.07 - Last weekend former three-time world champion and future boxing great Felix “Tito” Trinidad of Puerto Rico decided to retire from boxing after his camp was unable to secure rematches against undisputed middleweight champion Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins and WBC jr. middleweight champion Oscar “Golden Boy” Dela Hoya.

In an official statement, Tito’s father/manager, Felix Sr. reiterated that “there is no reason for his son to stay in professional boxing to take no meaningful fights, fights which do not add anything to Tito's tremendous career but could put his health at risk.”

It is interesting to note that only a handful reactions were noted after Trinidad announced his retirement from boxing. There were few reactions not because Trinidad is not a popular fighter but maybe because a lot of boxing fans believe that he will still come back and avenge his lone professional loss to Hopkins.

His “retirement” may even serve as a strong indication that Trinidad is aching to avenge his loss to Hopkins and also prove that his wins over Dela Hoya as well as to WBA jr. middleweight champion Fernando Vargas were no fluke.

Trinidad wants to prove that he is a true warrior, a gladiator. He is not like some of the few typical
champions of his time who feasts on nondescript fighters just to make money and fool the public.

It is commendable that Trinidad wants to fight the best in his division than face boxers which are not in his class. A fighter like Trinidad is what boxing needs right now. The sport is being humiliated by untimely deaths, controversial decisions and greedy characters.

As of the moment, boxing is slowly but surely regaining its lost reputation and It all started with
heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. Patiently, Lewis gave his best to bring back prestige not only to his career but to the heavyweight division and boxing in general. He fought the best boxers of his time to show all his critics that he is truly a great heavyweight champion. People clamored for a fight against former champ Mike Tyson and he immediately gave in to that request even at the expense of facing lawsuits. Lewis’ masterful victory against Tyson serves as the defining moment of his career.

Featherweights Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera sustained what Lewis has accomplished by giving in to calls of having a rematch of their epic war two years ago. The results were astounding. The Pay-per-view fight generated between 300,000 to 325,000 buys, a sign that boxing fans are back!

Now, maybe Hopkins can do boxing fans a big favor by giving Trinidad a much deserved rematch. It won’t hurt the feelings of the fans, don’t you think