By Matteo Alderson

Before 1980, it was universally recognized that Carlos Ortiz was the greatest fighter in Puerto Rican history, but a lot has happened since then and two other Puerto Ricans have etched their places in the annals of boxing history; Wilfredo Gomez and Felix Tito Trinidad.  

Both fighters had long distinguished careers and both of them set a number of records. Trinidad was the longest reigning Welterweight Champion in history, surpassing the mark set by Freddie Cochrane in World War II. Tito made 15 successful defenses during the course a reign that lasted over 6 years. Even though he won the title from the ordinary Maurice Blocker, he made a number of defenses against quality competition.

Ninety-four was definitely the most impressive year of his title reign. He successfully defended his title against Hector Camacho, Yori Boy Campas, and Oba Carr. Combined they entered the ring with a 130-2 record. After that stellar year, Tito’s career went into the doldrums, promotional problems and the political turmoil between King, HBO, and Main Events stalled Trinidad’s career and he made a number of defenses against nondescript opponents, which included Rodney Moore, Roger Turner, Larry Barnes, Kevin Lueshing, Ray Lavato, and Freddie Pendleton.  Tired of waiting and having trouble making the Welterweight limit, Trinidad signed to fight Terry Norris in the summer of 97 in what surely would have been a barn-burner.  Unfortunately Norris broke away from King and signed with Arum in hopes of landing a seven-figure payday against Oscar De La Hoya.  So instead of fighting Norris that fall Tito knocked out Aussie Troy Waters in one round in what was supposed to have been a 154-pound title eliminator.
 
Shortly there after in 98 the political landscaped changed.  HBO decided to work with King because they were interested in matches involving the King promoted duo of Evander Holyfield and Felix Trinidad.  Thus the relations between King, Arum, and HBO softened a bit and Tito decided to keep his Welterweight title in the hopes of securing a fight with the Golden Boy.  Then in 99 for the first time since King took Tyson from the network, HBO allowed King to promote a fight on the network when Tito beat Pernell Whitaker.

Even though Sweat Pea was 35 and was alleged to have had a major cocaine problem, Whitaker came to the fight in shape and was dominated by Trinidad. It was the first time that Whitaker had been decisively beaten.  The win set up a titanic showdown with Oscar De La Hoya in the fall of 99.  Officially Felix Trinidad unified the Welterweight title and won a unanimous decision.  Even though De La Hoya ran scared the last three rounds of the bout, the majority of observers felt that Oscar had done more than enough to win the fight. This poor performance has a negative impact on Trinidad’s greatness, but there are circumstance that help minimize the impact. 

Trinidad had been fighting at Welterweight since he was 18 years old and had extreme difficulty making the weight and had planned on moving up on several occasions, but was never afforded a title shot, not even after he knocked out Troy Waters in a title eliminator. The only reason Trinidad stayed at welterweight was so that he could get the big fights that would catapult him to super stardom. De La Hoya knew this and much like the great yet egotistical Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar has always used his star power and financial clout to induce opponents to fight under circumstance that were to his advantage. 

For example, De La Hoya would never fight guys at their weight and made them move up or down to unnatural weight classes in order to land the Golden Boy payday.  This was the case with Genaro Hernandez, Miguel Angel Gonzalez, John-John Molina, and Bernard Hopkins. The Trinidad fight was a similar situation, look at Trinidad, he didn’t even break a sweat for the first six rounds, displaying a trait that is characteristic of a severely dehydrated athlete.  Even though I think De La Hoya deserved the decision, I believe justice was rendered because I feel that Tito would have earned the decision if the fight had been fought at 154. 

After the De La Hoya debacle Trinidad moved up and beat undefeated 1996 Olympic Gold medallist David Reid.  Reid was only 14-0 at the time and had looked sub par in prior performances. Still David, had beaten the tough Frenchman Laurent Boudouani for the WBA title and was still an undefeated Olympic Gold medallist.  Coincidently the victory was Tito’s third win over a gold medallist in a little over a year and earned him the tag, “The Gold Medal Killer.” 

After a defense, Tito unified in a thriller with Fernando Vargas who was coming off of wins against Winky Wright and Ike Quartey.  A lot of people point to the fact that Vargas hasn’t been impressive since the battle with Trinidad and that he was overrated at the time. I think it was more of a case of Vargas never being the same physically or mentally after receiving a brutal beating at the hands of Tito.  

After the Vargas fight Tito annexed the WBA 160 pound title in his 5th round blitzkrieg of William Joppy and then came his fight with Hopkins and the end of his championship reign. 

Overall Trinidad has to be considered the greatest Puerto Rican fighter of all time.  He has the record for having the longest welterweight reign in history, he has 19 title fight wins, won titles in three different weight classes and partially unified the titles in two of those. 

A lot of people point to his performances in the De La Hoya and Wright fights and claim that Tito was one dimensional, and really there is some relevance to that perspective, but you can’t really count his fight with Wright because Tito was in his early thirties and was coming off a long lay off against a hungry and skilled fighter.  And I’ve already touched upon the circumstances involving the De La Hoya fight.
There are other factors contributing to Trinidad being chosen as the greatest fighter in Puerto Rican history.  First, he engaged in a high volume of super fights. Even though he may not have had the defensive skills of a Wilfredo Benitez, Tito was an offensive machine that had the heart and desire to go along with his aggressive crowd pleasing style. 

Boxing has been popular in Puerto Rico for a long time, but Trinidad captivated the nation and his popularity permeated through the entire Island. Today, whenever there is a good Puerto Rican prospect, people don’t say he that he might be the next Wilfredo Gomez or the next Carlos Ortiz, they say he might be the next Felix Trinidad because Tito has become the measuring stick by which all Puerto Rican fighters are compared.

Side Notes:

I thought Verno Phillips won the fight against Ike Quartey and I think it was the case of the bigger name getting the decision.  Yes, Quartey had better punch stats, but he was on queer street numerous times. 

There are a lot of experts saying that Diego Corrales would be able to beat Floyd Mayweather if they fought today, but I disagree and think that Mayweather is by far the best fighter in the world.  His athleticism and natural ability is Roy Jonesesque.