I didn't get to see the Jones-Trinidad fight (need to get off second shift ASAP), but thanks to the excellent first-time round-by-round by our own Spartan117, I was able to get a feel for it. Boxing can hold its share of surprises, times when all of the experts just end up wrong, but this wasn't one of those times. Roy can fight at a higher level than Tito at this particular time - period.
But before he gets feeling too good about himself, he may want to think about exactly what that means. Tito came into the fight after nearly three years of inactivity. And in his previous fight, he barely won a round (indeed, one judge gave him zero rounds) against Winky Wright. Beating Trinidad proved Jones still has something left, but calling out Joe Calzaghe or Bernard Hopkins? That's just crazy talk.
I especially loved Roy's comment that he would "go to Wales" to fight Calzaghe. All that would do is make it even more difficult to win by decision, and there's no way I could see him knocking Joe out. Maybe it would make financial sense, but even then the safer path would be facing Hopkins - he's a bigger name to the casual fan than Joe-Cal, and less likely to do permanent damage to Jones' face. He'll still need to keep that in good shape for announcing after all.
Tito's best days are even further behind him - has it really been eight years since he knocked out Fernando Vargas? - but he is younger than Jones, so maybe we'll see him again. the HBO crew said they'd like to see him at middleweight, but against who? Kelly Pavlik and Jermain Taylor would destroy him, and even younger fighters like Arthur Abraham and Sergio Mora probably have too much for Trinidad. It may be time to say thanks for the memories, but please retire for real Tito.
And speaking of retiring, I wish someone would do just that to Andrew Golota. There's no doubt that there's a segment of boxing fandom that finds the Foul Pole fascinating, I'm just not sure why. It can't be because his fights are exciting to watch (they're not) or because he has a legitimate chance to climb back to the top of the heavyweight division (he doesn't).
Until a younger fighter who actually understands conditioning lays a beating on him, Don King is going to keep trotting him out there on pay-per-view telecasts. So younger heavyweights, here's my challenge to you: do your roadwork, spend some extra time in the gym, and please do your part to get rid of Golota.
Finally, several media outlets are reporting the return of Floyd Mayweather Sr. to Oscar De La Hoya's corner, allegedly for a warm-up fight in May and a rematch with Floyd Jr. Two problems with this:
1) Oscar supposedly had already abandoned the idea of fighting on Cinco de Mayo weekend. And who would he fight? Steve Kim of Maxboxing.com says Dmitry Salita, Paulie Malignaggi and Steve Forbes are possibilities.
2)Do we really need to go through the father-son drama for the Mayweathers? Sounds like something cooked up to sell a new season of "24/7" to me...
Showing posts with label felix trinidad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label felix trinidad. Show all posts
21.1.08
19.1.08
Round by Round: Trinidad Vs. Jones
"Bring on the Titans" is the tagline of this ppv fight. I prefer the tagline "Bring on the Paychecks" but HBO didn't go for that.
Almost all analysts agree that this is a fight that would have been huge almost a decade ago but somehow 39 year old Jones and 35 year old Trinidad managed to score a PPV bout today. This is Trinidad's first fight above 160 pounds.
Uatu reports that few people came to the bars to watch this fight. He says that the crowd is on par with the Cotto-Mosley fans, but many less than Mayweather-Hatton.
The crowd at Madison Square Garden is mostly for Trinidad
A confident Jones believes that he still has it and comes to the ring in a gold crown with rapper, Rick Ross. According to Jones, "he wants to look good for his people". Trinidad chooses a more modest entrance. The National Anthems are sung and the fighters are introduced and its time to bring on the titans.
Round 1: It takes about 20 seconds before a punch is thrown. Trinidad throws the first which is blocked by Jones. The crowd starts is "Tito" chant. Jones' takes a careful approach by keeping his faced heavily guarded. Trinidad lands a good left to the body. Jones replies with fast flurries which are absorbed by Trinidad's body. Trinidad tries the left which lands.
Spartan117: 10-9 Jones
Uatu: 10-9 Trinidad
Round 2: Trindad starts the round by being very active landing combinations to the head and body. Jones not backing down but not throwing much back. Trinidad looks more technical than in the past and pastes Jones with hard combinations. Jones throwing much less than his opponent. Trinidad looks like the sharper boxer in round 2.
Spartan117: 10-9 Trinidad
Uatu: 10-9 Trinidad
Round 3: Trinidad keeps up the pace with combinations. Jones starts to wake up and throws single punches to the body and head. Both fighters' footwork looks on-point. Trinidad backs Jones into the ropes, but Jones fights out. Jones beats his chest as he gets pushed into the ropes and punched. Jones looks like the Jones of old by dancing and shuffling but so far he's not doing much fighting.
Spartan117: 10-9 Trinidad
Uatu: 10-9 Trinidad
Round 4: Jones gets backed into the ropes again and Trinidad takes his punches to Jones' body. Jones smiles as usual. Jones takes more initiative and lands 2 good shots to Trinidad's head. Jones landing many more punches in the 4th and uses his jab. Trinidad having trouble guarding his head.
Spartan117: 10-9 Jones
Uatu: 10-9 Jones
Round 5: The crowd starts the "Tito" chant again. Jones leading with straight right hands that land to the head of Trinidad. Trinidad gets warned for a low blow. The ref tells Jones to shake it off. Jones comes back and backs off Tito with hard jabs. Trinidad's punches look less powerful. Both fighters trade punches at the end of the round that are dangerously close to low blows.
Spartan117: 10-9 Jones
Uatu: 10-9 Jones
Round 6: Both fighters throw less in the beginning of the 6th. Trinidad continues to throw low shots that hit Jones right on the beltline. Jones lands 2 hard shots in the corner. Tito shakes them off and comes back with combinations to the head and body. Jones staggers Trinidad with hard hooks and straights to the head. Jones dances from the middle of the ring back to his corner after the bell.
Spartan117: 10-9 Jones
Uatu: 10-9 Jones
Round 7: Both fighters stay light on their feet. Trinidad goes back to the body. Trinidad goes down to a short right hand from Jones which is the first knockdown of the fight. Trinidad is slow to get up but makes it before 10. Jones keeps up the aggression and hammers Trinidad with hard head shots. Trinidad shakes off the cobwebs and fights back with hooks. Jones slows down takes a breath.
Spartan117: 10-8 Jones
Uatu: 10-8 Jones
Round 8: Trinidad backs away from Jones for the first minute of the round but keeps eating jabs. Trinidad throws occasional hooks which are blocked by Jones. Jones throwing less in this round. Trinidad starting to get back on track with combinations. Jones unleashes the right hand again which land cleanly.
Spartan117: 10-9 Jones
Uatu: 10-9 Jones
Round 9: Trinidad starts the round off with a flurry which is mostly blocked. Jones counters hard with 2 hard shots. Trinidad fights back with combinations upstairs. Jones fights back harder, backing Tito into the ropes and hitting cleanly. Jones knocks Tito's head back with a hard uppercut. Tito continues to backpedal, but does not stop throwing.
Spartan117: 10-9 Jones
Uatu: 10-9 Jones
Round 10: Jones continues to back down Trinidad with hard straights. Trinidad's defense looks as sloppy as Winky Wright made it look years ago. Trinidad gets back on the offensive by backing up Jones with hard punches to the head. Jones replies with hooks. Jones loses control of the fight when Trinidad backs him into the ropes. Jones lands a lightning fast straight left and right and knocks Tito down yet again. Trinidad makes it up easily before 10.
Spartan117: 10-8 Jones
Uatu: 10-8 Jones
Round 11: Jones, clearly the aggressor, backs Tito up and lands clean punches to Trinidad's head. Trinidad throws less and Jones takes advantage and throws more. Neither fighter looks tired. Jones lands a leaping left hook. Trinidad gets hit cleanly by a left and right hook towards the end of the round.
Spartan117: 10-9 Jones
Uatu: 10-9 Jones
Round 12: The fighters touch gloves to start the last round. Tito realizes he's down and starts throwing more. Jones defense absorbs the punches. Jones stumbles Trinidad with 2 hooks upstairs. Jones punishes Trinidad with 4 hard shots that land cleanly. Jones lands 2 more and Tito does nothing to answer back at the end of the round which is an example of how most of the fight went.
Spartan117: 10-9 Jones
Uatu: 10-9 Jones
Jones looked very sharp in this fight. Trinidad did not look horrible but his defense was full of holes and was outmatched by Jones tonight. I'm sure we will see Jones fight again in the future.
Jones wins by unanimous decision
Spartan117: 118-108 Jones
Uatu: 117-109 Jones
Judge 1: 116-110 Jones
Judge 2: 117-109 Jones
Judge 3: 116-110 Jones
Jones seemed very lively in his post-fight interview. "I will fight anybody anywhere anytime," he exclaimed. He calls out the winner of Hopkins-Calzaghe saying "I'll go to Wales to fight Joe Calzaghe". Kellerman says afterwards that this would be a mistake.
Trinidad says that he will speak with his father about fighting again. The announcers say they would like to see Trinidad fight at Middlewieght.
Almost all analysts agree that this is a fight that would have been huge almost a decade ago but somehow 39 year old Jones and 35 year old Trinidad managed to score a PPV bout today. This is Trinidad's first fight above 160 pounds.
Uatu reports that few people came to the bars to watch this fight. He says that the crowd is on par with the Cotto-Mosley fans, but many less than Mayweather-Hatton.
The crowd at Madison Square Garden is mostly for Trinidad
A confident Jones believes that he still has it and comes to the ring in a gold crown with rapper, Rick Ross. According to Jones, "he wants to look good for his people". Trinidad chooses a more modest entrance. The National Anthems are sung and the fighters are introduced and its time to bring on the titans.
Round 1: It takes about 20 seconds before a punch is thrown. Trinidad throws the first which is blocked by Jones. The crowd starts is "Tito" chant. Jones' takes a careful approach by keeping his faced heavily guarded. Trinidad lands a good left to the body. Jones replies with fast flurries which are absorbed by Trinidad's body. Trinidad tries the left which lands.
Spartan117: 10-9 Jones
Uatu: 10-9 Trinidad
Round 2: Trindad starts the round by being very active landing combinations to the head and body. Jones not backing down but not throwing much back. Trinidad looks more technical than in the past and pastes Jones with hard combinations. Jones throwing much less than his opponent. Trinidad looks like the sharper boxer in round 2.
Spartan117: 10-9 Trinidad
Uatu: 10-9 Trinidad
Round 3: Trinidad keeps up the pace with combinations. Jones starts to wake up and throws single punches to the body and head. Both fighters' footwork looks on-point. Trinidad backs Jones into the ropes, but Jones fights out. Jones beats his chest as he gets pushed into the ropes and punched. Jones looks like the Jones of old by dancing and shuffling but so far he's not doing much fighting.
Spartan117: 10-9 Trinidad
Uatu: 10-9 Trinidad
Round 4: Jones gets backed into the ropes again and Trinidad takes his punches to Jones' body. Jones smiles as usual. Jones takes more initiative and lands 2 good shots to Trinidad's head. Jones landing many more punches in the 4th and uses his jab. Trinidad having trouble guarding his head.
Spartan117: 10-9 Jones
Uatu: 10-9 Jones
Round 5: The crowd starts the "Tito" chant again. Jones leading with straight right hands that land to the head of Trinidad. Trinidad gets warned for a low blow. The ref tells Jones to shake it off. Jones comes back and backs off Tito with hard jabs. Trinidad's punches look less powerful. Both fighters trade punches at the end of the round that are dangerously close to low blows.
Spartan117: 10-9 Jones
Uatu: 10-9 Jones
Round 6: Both fighters throw less in the beginning of the 6th. Trinidad continues to throw low shots that hit Jones right on the beltline. Jones lands 2 hard shots in the corner. Tito shakes them off and comes back with combinations to the head and body. Jones staggers Trinidad with hard hooks and straights to the head. Jones dances from the middle of the ring back to his corner after the bell.
Spartan117: 10-9 Jones
Uatu: 10-9 Jones
Round 7: Both fighters stay light on their feet. Trinidad goes back to the body. Trinidad goes down to a short right hand from Jones which is the first knockdown of the fight. Trinidad is slow to get up but makes it before 10. Jones keeps up the aggression and hammers Trinidad with hard head shots. Trinidad shakes off the cobwebs and fights back with hooks. Jones slows down takes a breath.
Spartan117: 10-8 Jones
Uatu: 10-8 Jones
Round 8: Trinidad backs away from Jones for the first minute of the round but keeps eating jabs. Trinidad throws occasional hooks which are blocked by Jones. Jones throwing less in this round. Trinidad starting to get back on track with combinations. Jones unleashes the right hand again which land cleanly.
Spartan117: 10-9 Jones
Uatu: 10-9 Jones
Round 9: Trinidad starts the round off with a flurry which is mostly blocked. Jones counters hard with 2 hard shots. Trinidad fights back with combinations upstairs. Jones fights back harder, backing Tito into the ropes and hitting cleanly. Jones knocks Tito's head back with a hard uppercut. Tito continues to backpedal, but does not stop throwing.
Spartan117: 10-9 Jones
Uatu: 10-9 Jones
Round 10: Jones continues to back down Trinidad with hard straights. Trinidad's defense looks as sloppy as Winky Wright made it look years ago. Trinidad gets back on the offensive by backing up Jones with hard punches to the head. Jones replies with hooks. Jones loses control of the fight when Trinidad backs him into the ropes. Jones lands a lightning fast straight left and right and knocks Tito down yet again. Trinidad makes it up easily before 10.
Spartan117: 10-8 Jones
Uatu: 10-8 Jones
Round 11: Jones, clearly the aggressor, backs Tito up and lands clean punches to Trinidad's head. Trinidad throws less and Jones takes advantage and throws more. Neither fighter looks tired. Jones lands a leaping left hook. Trinidad gets hit cleanly by a left and right hook towards the end of the round.
Spartan117: 10-9 Jones
Uatu: 10-9 Jones
Round 12: The fighters touch gloves to start the last round. Tito realizes he's down and starts throwing more. Jones defense absorbs the punches. Jones stumbles Trinidad with 2 hooks upstairs. Jones punishes Trinidad with 4 hard shots that land cleanly. Jones lands 2 more and Tito does nothing to answer back at the end of the round which is an example of how most of the fight went.
Spartan117: 10-9 Jones
Uatu: 10-9 Jones
Jones looked very sharp in this fight. Trinidad did not look horrible but his defense was full of holes and was outmatched by Jones tonight. I'm sure we will see Jones fight again in the future.
Jones wins by unanimous decision
Spartan117: 118-108 Jones
Uatu: 117-109 Jones
Judge 1: 116-110 Jones
Judge 2: 117-109 Jones
Judge 3: 116-110 Jones
Jones seemed very lively in his post-fight interview. "I will fight anybody anywhere anytime," he exclaimed. He calls out the winner of Hopkins-Calzaghe saying "I'll go to Wales to fight Joe Calzaghe". Kellerman says afterwards that this would be a mistake.
Trinidad says that he will speak with his father about fighting again. The announcers say they would like to see Trinidad fight at Middlewieght.
18.1.08
Prediction: Roy Jones, Jr., vs. Felix "Tito" Trinidad
RJJ, easily. Tito looks a tiny bit spongy. Ironically, he weighed more than Jones. Uatu indicates RJJ, UD 12.
And Uatu cares not for the undercard and won't be watching it.
The Franchise says...
Most of me want to say that this is yet another in a string of fights that would be a lot more compelling if we could hop in a time machine and drag the past versions of these fighters to the present. Still, I thought the Mayorga-Vargas fight would be a debacle, and it turned out to be pleasantly entertaining. In that case both men were pretty evenly matched, or more precisely, they had faded from their primes at about the same rate.
I'm not so sure that's the case here. As hard as it is for me to shake off the mental images of Jones getting dropped by Antonio Tarver (which was stunning) or Glen Johnson (not as surprising but more brutal), my educated guess is that Roy simply has more left in the tank at the present time.
And that's what a fight like this comes down to: who has declined the least. My pick is Jones UD 12, probably easily enough to do as much showboating as he wants in the late round. Bolo punch, here we come! Maybe even the chicken wing...
Since Uatu passed on the undercard, I'll take a stab at it. I'm skipping Chop Chop Corley's fight though, as I simply don't know enough about his opponent, Devon Alexander.
In the other fights, I like:
Karmazin KO Bunema
And what the heck, Mollo KO Golota
And Uatu cares not for the undercard and won't be watching it.
The Franchise says...
Most of me want to say that this is yet another in a string of fights that would be a lot more compelling if we could hop in a time machine and drag the past versions of these fighters to the present. Still, I thought the Mayorga-Vargas fight would be a debacle, and it turned out to be pleasantly entertaining. In that case both men were pretty evenly matched, or more precisely, they had faded from their primes at about the same rate.
I'm not so sure that's the case here. As hard as it is for me to shake off the mental images of Jones getting dropped by Antonio Tarver (which was stunning) or Glen Johnson (not as surprising but more brutal), my educated guess is that Roy simply has more left in the tank at the present time.
And that's what a fight like this comes down to: who has declined the least. My pick is Jones UD 12, probably easily enough to do as much showboating as he wants in the late round. Bolo punch, here we come! Maybe even the chicken wing...
Since Uatu passed on the undercard, I'll take a stab at it. I'm skipping Chop Chop Corley's fight though, as I simply don't know enough about his opponent, Devon Alexander.
In the other fights, I like:
Karmazin KO Bunema
And what the heck, Mollo KO Golota
Weigh-in Report: Jones vs. Trinidad
Update: per ESPNNEWS - Jones 169.5, Tito 170
predictions to come.
Uatu tuned in at 2:54, which is late.
At this point people are swearing and arguing over what appears to be the gloves.
Some one is yelling about clearing the stage.
Did the weigh-in happen, or not?
It doesn't look like it has started yet?
At one point someone yelled that there would be no fight, and some talk about having signed contracts. Hard to say what's going on.
Well, Mike Mollo has just hit the scales at 222.
Golota, 237.
Neither gentleman looks particularly ripped in terms of physique, but both looked reasonably toned and muscular considering they don't have to cut weight.
Now Don King is doing his thing. No need to transcribe his words.
But he does say that Jones and Trinidad are indeed arguing over gloves.
Bunema - 153
Uatu is thinking that Jones Trinidad weighed in first.
Too bad.
Karmazin - 151 3/4
Uatu would prefer "forged in hell" as opposed to "made in hell"
The announcer says St. Louis hats can only mean one thing. Alexander the Great.
St. Louis hats mean Cory Spinks normally, so that's garbage.
Alexander 138
Chop Chop 138 1/4
Now they are moving on to Collazo so it is clear they are moving down the card. Uatu would prefer rising action to crescendoing with Jones-Trinidad and not the other way around. This post ends unless anything worthwhile takes place.
predictions to come.
Uatu tuned in at 2:54, which is late.
At this point people are swearing and arguing over what appears to be the gloves.
Some one is yelling about clearing the stage.
Did the weigh-in happen, or not?
It doesn't look like it has started yet?
At one point someone yelled that there would be no fight, and some talk about having signed contracts. Hard to say what's going on.
Well, Mike Mollo has just hit the scales at 222.
Golota, 237.
Neither gentleman looks particularly ripped in terms of physique, but both looked reasonably toned and muscular considering they don't have to cut weight.
Now Don King is doing his thing. No need to transcribe his words.
But he does say that Jones and Trinidad are indeed arguing over gloves.
Bunema - 153
Uatu is thinking that Jones Trinidad weighed in first.
Too bad.
Karmazin - 151 3/4
Uatu would prefer "forged in hell" as opposed to "made in hell"
The announcer says St. Louis hats can only mean one thing. Alexander the Great.
St. Louis hats mean Cory Spinks normally, so that's garbage.
Alexander 138
Chop Chop 138 1/4
Now they are moving on to Collazo so it is clear they are moving down the card. Uatu would prefer rising action to crescendoing with Jones-Trinidad and not the other way around. This post ends unless anything worthwhile takes place.
19.11.07
Weekend Wrap-Up, Nov. 19, 2007: Guzman-Soto, Washed-Up Fighter-O-Rama and More
I have to say that I don't like picking against my brother and fellow BoxingWatchers.com staffer, Uatu. He's the one who got me into boxing, and aside from having seen a lot more fights than I have, he has a razor-sharp memory that serves him well when recalling how fighters have looked in their last few fights.
So when he picked Humberto Soto to beat Joan Guzman this past Saturday, I felt a little foolish. Even I remembered how unimpressive Guzman looked during his previous fight, and I was worried that the fact that Joan was one of my favorite fighters was clouding my prediction.
Having seen a replay of the fight, it appears I should have had a little more faith. Guzman boxed when he needed to, survived the times he stood and traded, and won fairly easily against a tough opponent. He's now 28-0 and seems to be ready for a big fight.
He also needs to do it soon. Despite his relatively small body of work, Guzman is already 31 years old, and fighters who rely on their speed and reflexes like Joan face a much sharper drop-off than sluggers - see Roy Jones Jr. Steve Kim of MaxBoxing.com doesn't think Bob Arum will put Guzman in against Manny Pacquiao, so it's hard to pick an obvious candidate to face him in a career-defining bout. Juan Manuel Marquez, maybe?
Speaking of Kim, his most recent article also talks about the upcoming Black Friday showdown between Fernando Vargas and Ricardo Mayorga, two fighters whose best days are behind them. The fascination with this fight reminds me of the proverbial train wreck in that while we don't really want to watch, we also can't look away. The early 2008 fight pitting Jones against Tito Trinidad falls into this category too.
Much as I'd like to ignore both of these fights, there's no denying they will sell some tickets and some PPV buys on name value alone. Perception really is more important than reality in the boxing world, and since the public sees them as big fights, that's exactly what they are. We've already agreed we'll be watching and covering them here, like it or not.
So when he picked Humberto Soto to beat Joan Guzman this past Saturday, I felt a little foolish. Even I remembered how unimpressive Guzman looked during his previous fight, and I was worried that the fact that Joan was one of my favorite fighters was clouding my prediction.
Having seen a replay of the fight, it appears I should have had a little more faith. Guzman boxed when he needed to, survived the times he stood and traded, and won fairly easily against a tough opponent. He's now 28-0 and seems to be ready for a big fight.
He also needs to do it soon. Despite his relatively small body of work, Guzman is already 31 years old, and fighters who rely on their speed and reflexes like Joan face a much sharper drop-off than sluggers - see Roy Jones Jr. Steve Kim of MaxBoxing.com doesn't think Bob Arum will put Guzman in against Manny Pacquiao, so it's hard to pick an obvious candidate to face him in a career-defining bout. Juan Manuel Marquez, maybe?
Speaking of Kim, his most recent article also talks about the upcoming Black Friday showdown between Fernando Vargas and Ricardo Mayorga, two fighters whose best days are behind them. The fascination with this fight reminds me of the proverbial train wreck in that while we don't really want to watch, we also can't look away. The early 2008 fight pitting Jones against Tito Trinidad falls into this category too.
Much as I'd like to ignore both of these fights, there's no denying they will sell some tickets and some PPV buys on name value alone. Perception really is more important than reality in the boxing world, and since the public sees them as big fights, that's exactly what they are. We've already agreed we'll be watching and covering them here, like it or not.
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