By Matthew Hurley: According to Don King the fight between Felix ‘Tito’ Trinidad and Roy Jones Jr. will be, “The fight of the century.” King, with his usual bluster, has been hyping the January 19th bout as if the two participants were still in their respective primes. Unfortunately neither Jones nor Trinidad has resembled the prize fighting phenoms they were when both jockeyed for position as the best fighter in the sport..
Still the senior circuit has proved to be a financial windfall for many former great fighters trying to recapture bits and pieces of their past glory. The fight itself will do nothing to enhance or take away from their Hall of Fame credentials but with boxing fans inundated with overpriced pay per view events it will be interesting to see just how successful this card proves to be in terms of customer buys.
Jones 51-4 with 38 KOs has not been the same quick, athletic boxer he was on the night he beat John Ruiz for a heavyweight belt back in 2003. Sweating off in excess of twenty-five pounds to return to the light heavyweight division to face off against Antonio Tarver seemed to forever deplete him of the speed and agility that compensated for his lack of technical skill. Jones never bothered to learn the finer points of the game as one time rival Bernard Hopkins did because of his unparalleled athleticism. Hopkins, never as fast as Jones, perfected his defensive prowess and counter punching which helped prolong his career.
“Once he lost that quickness,” Hopkins recently remarked of Jones, “he was done because he never learned the fundamentals of the game.”
That lack of proper boxing technique led to his downfall in three matches with Tarver and a ninth round knockout loss to Glen Johnson. Jones has since rebounded to post victories over Prince Badi Ajamu and Anthony Hanshaw but both of those fighters are more representative of Roy’s current status than indicators of a return to form.
Still, Jones feels that his losses to Tarver and Johnson were more an aberration than a true testament as to what he has left to offer boxing fans.
“The rooster is back in Roy Jones,” he says with a cocky grin. “I used to strut and entertain people. Somehow I lost that for a time. I started to focus more on my opponents than on simply going out and entertaining my fans. Now I’m back to doing what I do best.”
Trinidad, 42-2 with 35 KOs never seemed quite the same after the aforementioned Hopkins knocked him out in the twelfth round in 2001. He has fought rarely ever since, just three times, and it has become apparent that a stiff jab and movement, employed against him first by Oscar De La Hoya in their 1999 welterweight unification bout, can befuddle one of the best knockout artists of his generation. Never was this more apparent then in 2005 when Winky Wright won every single round against him behind a repetitive right jab in a decision victory. But if a fighter comes at him, like knockout victim Ricardo Mayorga, or slows down like David Reid did and ‘Tito’ can get his punches off then Trinidad will always remain a threat. That is exactly what Jones has to worry about and what Trinidad is hoping will happen as the rounds progress and Roy’s legs begin to tire.
“I always want to fight great fighters and I have always wanted to fight Roy Jones Jr., one f the greatest fighters of the era,” Trinidad says. “I am still one of the best fighters in the world (and) I feel good at this weight.”
The bout will be contested at 170 pounds.
Both fighters are doing their best to promote the fight and hopefully they can create some magic together within the confines of Madison Square Garden. Jones, who is predicting a fourth round knockout, insists that promoter Don King’s hyperbole rings true.
“We are both powerful punchers and it will all depend on who gets there first. I will guarantee this – count on it – this will be a super fight that delivers the goods. We’re going to give fight fans exactly what they want to see.”
At a hefty $50 price tag one would certainly hope so.
The Trinidad – Jones fight is being distributed by HBO pay-per-view.