COMMENTARY : Hard to get excited about Jones-Trinidad
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Sports/207570/
Nearly seven years late and at least seven years out of fashion, a boxing match between Roy Jones Jr. and Felix Trinidad is scheduled for Jan. 19 in Madison Square Garden. On pay-perview, even.
It is listed as a 12-round light heavyweight bout. No championship seems to be at stake, not even one contrived on short notice for the occasion.
In the middle of 2001, Jones and Trinidad were the hottest boxing commodities on the planet. Jones held almost universal recognition as the world’s best fighter, “pound for pound,” and Trinidad wasn’t far behind in this mythical category.
After being robbed of a gold medal in the 1988 Olympic Games at Seoul, Korea — even his South Korean opponent admitted it was a horrible decision — Jones hit the pro circuit like a comet.
He won a version of the middleweight title and a version of the super middleweight title before unifying the three main belts (WBC, WBA, IBF ) in the light heavyweight class. But he had no viable opponent at 175 pounds.
After dominating the welterweight and junior middleweight divisions from 1990-2000, including victories over Oscar De La Hoya, Fernando Vargas and Pernell Whitaker, the undefeated Trinidad reached 2001 with 33 knockouts in 40 victories. Also, he had fought himself out of profitable opposition at 147 or 154 pounds.
That’s when the promotional wheels started spinning furiously.
Trinidad, a thunderous puncher, was 5-11 and long-armed. No reason he couldn’t grow comfortably into a light heavyweight, the figuring went, and join Jones in a pay-per-view blockbuster.
The promoters thought it would be a nice cosmetic touch if Trinidad faced Jones as the undisputed middleweight champ. The middleweight title was scattered among William Joppy (WBA ), Keith Holmes (WBC ) and Bernard Hopkins (IBF ).
Fight fans hadn’t paid much attention to the 160-pounders after Marvin Hagler lost to Ray Leonard and retired in 1987, but Trinidad’s potential created a justification to unify. So Trinidad knocked out Joppy, and Hopkins outpointed Holmes.
For the unified title, Hopkins made the heavily favored Trinidad look bewildered and disorganized for 11 rounds before stopping him in the 12 th at Madison Square Garden on Sept. 29, 2001.
Hopkins was offered a shot at Jones, to whom he’d lost a reasonably close decision in an IBF middleweight title match several years earlier. Hopkins didn’t like the terms and declined. So for Jones’ big payday, he had to go up to 193 pounds and easily outpoint WBA heavyweight champion John Ruiz in 2003.
Inexplicably, Jones then vacated the heavyweight belt and sweated down to 175 to fight Antonio Tarver. They met three times. After barely winning the first, Jones was knocked out in the second round of their second meeting, and sprinted backward all night while losing a decision in the third.
The “real” Roy Jones hasn’t been in evidence since the Ruiz fight. I doubt he will suddenly reappear in January.
Trinidad has boxed only three times since Hopkins humiliated him — knockout victories in 2002 and 2004, and a lopsided decision loss to Ronald “Winky” Wright in 2005.
Can boxing nostalgia be peddled at pay-per-view prices ? Make up your own mind. These two contestants lost me a long time ago.