By Cliff Rold

With their showdown now only days away, and in the spirit of a fight that celebrates yesterday as much as, probably more than, tomorrow, it’s a fitting time to take a look at the careers of Roy Jones Jr. and Felix “Tito” Trinidad.  Specifically, this is a look at the broader view of their accomplishments and how those rate historically in the divisions they have fought in over the years.  Let’s begin with the man from Cupey Alto, Puerto Rico and a look at the two divisions that made his career.

Felix Trinidad
42 Wins, 2 Losses, 35 Wins By KO, 1 Loss by KO

Trinidad at Welterweight

World Champion (1999); won from Oscar De La Hoya; 0 defenses
WBC titlist (1999); won from Oscar De La Hoya; 0 defenses
IBF titlist (1993-1999); won from Maurice Blocker; 14 defenses

Summary:  In rating Tito as a fighter, it is within the confines of the 147 lb. division that he made his longest case as a fighter.  Prior to his first shot at an alphabelt, Trinidad showed championship mettle in 1992 by coming off the deck twice in the second round to stop veteran Alberto Cortes in the third.  It was the critical win on the path to his second round blowout of Maurice Blocker in 1993.  From there, Trinidad would tear through 13 title defenses, some against strong competition like Oba Carr, Yori Boy Campas and Pernell Whitaker, before a unification bout and shot at the lineal crown against Oscar De La Hoya. 

The Good:  In Trinidad’s favor at 147 lbs. are his high number of title defenses and the longevity, over six years, of his IBF reign.  That six year mark is the longest for any titlist or World champion in the division’s history.  As noted, he had some commendable wins in that time.  Carr and Campas were both young and undefeated; Whitaker was aged but hardly decrepit; and I am of the minority that had him winning, by a single point, the De La Hoya fight.   However…

The Bad:  …the De La Hoya fight was more negative than positive.  The best fighter he’d ever been in with up to that point made Tito look ordinary and he didn’t have the depth of competition prior to that to make the fight appear an anomaly.  While the numbers for Tito are strong, the competition is lacking when compared to all-time measuring sticks like Carmen Basilio, Kid Gavilan or Ray Leonard (no one compares to Robinson at Welterweight so why bother).  Trininad needed Whitaker (or an Ike Quartey) earlier in his career; instead, he got promotional squabbles and regrettable periods of inactivity.  He had a nice run at welterweight, but it could have been more.

Rating Tito at 147:  When the good and bad are stacked next to each other, Tito comes off well at Welterweight but not quite great in an all-time sense.  That’s not a knock; it’s just tough to stack up in what is arguably the deepest, most talented and most storied division of them all over the years.  Still, six years and double digit defenses of the IBF belt is nothing to scoff at.  A fair rating for Tito’s Welterweight years could certainly see him rated anywhere from fifteen to thirty.

Tito at Jr. Middleweight

WBA titlist (2000-2001); won from David Reid; 2 defenses
IBF titlist (2000-2001; won from Felix Trinidad; 0 defenses

The Good:  If his Welterweight run was a study in consistency, his run at 154 lbs. was as explosive as Tito’s left hook.  He began with a March 2000 win against the U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist Reid, getting off the floor in the third to drop his man four times; it was a fight of the year candidate.  A mandatory defense against Mamadou Thiam set the stage for a December 2000 unification clash with Vargas that still deserves the awe it evokes in memory.  Vargas was down five times; Tito once.  Doing the Reid fight one better, it was not only a Fight of the Year candidate but maybe the greatest Jr. Middleweight fight ever.

The Bad:  It’s hard to find a flaw in Tito’s time at 154 lbs.  He fought two undefeated Olympians and wrecked both before moving on to a dangerous destiny with Bernard Hopkins.  There are some criticisms that can be made.  The first is that he wasn’t in the division long enough (only one year).  The other is that, while talented, both Reid and Vargas lagged far behind Tito in ring experience. 

Rating Tito at 154:  If Tito’s rating suffers at Welterweight because of the depth in that division, then a lack of depth and shorter historical window helps him at 154.  Jr. Middleweight has been around since the early 1960s but has been a case of peaks and valleys in terms of talent sticking around to make an impression.  The talents that did like Tommy Hearns and Mike McCallum deserve to be rated ahead of Tito and a fair rating could see Tito taking up anything after them from around five to ten.

Beyond 154: Post-Vargas, Tito famously added the WBA Middleweight belt with a devastating May 2001 knockout of William Joppy before suffering his first defeat to Hopkins in September of that year. 

He’s fought three times since 2001, with mixed results.  He’s scored two knockout wins against Hasine Cherifi and Ricardo Mayorga but was embarrassed in losing just about all 2,160 seconds of his 2005 bout with Winky Wright.  The Jones event marks his first time in the ring in the almost three years since the Wright bout. 

Tito didn’t get enough done to merit discussion among the top Middleweights and it’s tough to make a credible case for him among the top fifty fighters, pound-for-pound, of all-time.  That said, top thirty at Welterweight and top ten at Jr. Middleweight says that Tito, on his best day, was one hell of a fighter.

Later This Week: Rating RJJ

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com