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April 2000
Each month we bring you a selection of articles from the current and past issues of BOXING MONTHLY. To buy the magazine, see our subscription or back issues pages, or use our world distribution map to find a news-stand copy. Why not use our Interactive Forum to express your own boxing comments and opinions!
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MAN BEATS BOY
Felix Trinidad exposed the inexperience in the bigger, heavier David Reid to become light-middle champ. But can he secure that big-money rematch with Oscar De La Hoya? GRAHAM HOUSTON reports from Las Vegas |
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TYPICAL TITO: First he takes, then he gives, then he wins
- Get Big Pic For four rounds, David Reid boxed the perfect fight that he needed to box against Felix "Tito" Trinidad outdoors at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas
on 3 March. He scored a knockdown in the third round. He was in front on points. Things were looking good for the World Boxing Association super
welterweight champion from Philadelphia. From round five, though, things started slowly and, as it turned out,
inexorably, to go wrong for Reid. Trinidad took control. And in the seventh round, the fight turned into a nightmare for the boxer called
the American Dream when a left hook had Reid down and in desperate trouble. Things did not improve. In the eighth round, Reid suffered a cut over the right eye and by the end of the round the eye was half-closed to
match his well-chronicled droopy left eyelid. In the 11th, Reid was down three times for mandatory eight counts and
also slipped to the floor. And at the end of 12 rounds there was only one winner, Trinidad by a landslide. The judges’ scores showed the extent of his superiority:
114-106, 114-107, 114-107. And this even though Tito had two points deducted for low blows as well as suffering the knockdown to lose round
three by a 10-8 margin. It was, in the end, as the oddsmakers had figured, a triumph for the experience, coolness, power and precision of Trinidad over an opponent
who was perceived as a serious threat but ended up being outclassed. After just 14 professional fights (all wins, seven inside the
distance) and despite his Olympic gold medal, Reid, as some had feared, turned out not to have been ready to face the superb fighting machine
from Puerto Rico who had won more title bouts (16) than Reid had had fights. In this battle of undefeated champions, Trinidad, the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation welterweight champion (he
was due at time of writing to relinquish both belts), proved to be a class above the man for whose title he was challenging. Reid, 26, looked the bigger boxer physically, although both men came
in at the same weight, a pound under the division limit of 154lbs (11 stone), but in the last half of the fight Trinidad, 27, was backing him
up and dominating him the way a man does a boy. Even before getting drilled by the left hook in the seventh, the fight
seemed to have been drifting away from Reid. And once he had been dropped, legs all over the place before he flopped on all fours,
grinning a dazed, foolish grin, one knew that the fight, as a contest, was essentially all over. What followed was five rounds of Reid getting pasted, leading some to believe that referee Mitch Halpern, the ringside doctor or Reid’s own
corner should have stopped the fight. But Reid seemed alert enough, which was astonishing considering the shots he took. At the back of
everyone’s mind, one suspects, was the memory of how one big right hand from Reid captured Olympic gold in the late stages of a contest he could
not have won on points. But there was to be no equivalent of the Atlanta miracle for Reid this night. Trinidad was too smart, too professional
and far too good for that. Yet, powerful and impressive though Trinidad was, it was not entirely his night. The name of Oscar De La Hoya kept cropping up at the
post-fight press conference, the way it had in the lead-up to the fight. It is as if the two are now eternally linked, in the manner of boxing’s
classic rivalries. Everyone wanted to know when and if Trinidad will meet De La Hoya again, and what if anything is holding up the fight from Tito’s side.
The announcement by promoter Bob Arum two days before the Trinidad-Reid fight that De La Hoya will meet Sugar Shane Mosley on 17
June clearly rules out any chance of an Oscar-Felix rematch in the near future. But Trinidad seems unconcerned, even though a De La Hoya fight
is by far his biggest money-maker. Trinidad’s promoter, Don King, says that Tito will keep moving onward and upward, with unification bouts at 154lbs and then a middleweight
title challenge against William Joppy, the World Boxing Association champion who won unimpressively in a non-title bout on the undercard.
King predictably took some shots at De La Hoya and Arum when addressing the post-fight conference. He said of De La Hoya: "They have
labelled him as Chicken De La Hoya, the Mexicans labelled him as Running Coyote. I refuse to believe that and I repudiate that, because I think
Oscar deserves better than that. He’s been the Golden Boy, he’s given us quite a bit of entertainment and he’s been very good with what they’ve
put before him. But it’s time now for Oscar to stand up and vindicate himself. "If he goes for this sham of Shane Mosley, then Oscar should go into the movies and sing and dance, because he’s no longer a prize fighter.
Shane Mosley’s a lightweight – and the lightweight is gonna beat him. But the fact of the matter is he’s running and he don’t want to fight.
There’s a saying: ‘A brave man dies but once, a coward dies a thousand deaths.’ People will always be questioning him for the rest of his
career why he did not fight Tito Trinidad." And Trinidad said: "I already fought him as a welterweight and beat him. Now I’m the super welterweight champion and I’ll be waiting for him
here." So much for Trinidad and De La Hoya meeting in the near future at catchweights — in between welter and light-middle — as had been mooted.
Indeed, a Trinidad-De La Hoya encore looks a long way off. Promoter Arum’s contention all along has been that De La Hoya does not
need Trinidad, because the Golden Boy is by far the bigger attraction. There does not seem any serious doubt about that. Even though it was
announced that a sell-out crowd of more than 10,000 attended the Caesars Palace show, King later told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that a million
dollars’ worth of tickets had been given away. But King has a valid point, even though the manner in which he expresses it might grate with the De La Hoya faction, that De La Hoya
will not gain the universal respect of the fight fans and the boxing industry until he fights Trinidad again. Bob Arum says that the fight can happen in the year 2002, when De La Hoya has grown into a light-middle. But a lot can happen in two years.
Perhaps, after De La Hoya has fought Mosley (and it is not a sure thing that he wins), the two sides can get together again. Then again, perhaps
not. Both Trinidad and his father/trainer, Felix Trinidad Sr, seem to possess a stubborn pride and resent De La Hoya attempting to dictate to Meanwhile, Trinidad will keep fighting, seeking to show the boxing public that his claim to be the best fighter in the world is valid. And
there is one thing about Trinidad that nobody can deny: he will fight anyone. "Felix Trinidad is ready to fight at any time, any place,
anywhere and he’s demonstrated that he’s the best," King shouted at the post-fight conference. "He got knocked down, but he got back up." That he did. As in his championship fights with Yory Boy Campas, Oba
Carr and Kevin Lueshing, Trinidad seemed to get even stronger after being on the floor. Reid seemed to be in with a chance when he bowled Tito over with a straight right in the third round, after knocking him across the ring
with an overhand right a little earlier in the round. But Trinidad was up in an instant and moved in again as soon as the
eight count had been completed. In that moment, although we did not know it at the time, Reid had lost his chance of winning. Reid had promised, before the fight, that he would go after Trinidad if he hurt him. Instead, he held back. It was as if, as noted by another
light-middle champ, Fernando Vargas, at ringside, Reid allowed himself to be intimidated by Trinidad’s presence. Instead of being assertive and aggressive, Reid seemed to be staying back and trying to load up for one big punch. And all the while Trinidad
was gathering momentum, taking the fight to the champion, hitting him hard with hooks and right hands to the body to create opportunities for
blows to the head. Even when Trinidad was only hitting Reid on the gloves he seemed to be moving him back. Reid shook his head in the "You
aren’t hurting me" manner, but Trinidad knew better. As Reid became ever more defensive, leaning sideways in exaggerated fashion, left arm often held low, so Trinidad took an even firmer grasp Even though Trinidad had a point taken off in the sixth and another in the 11th for hitting low he pounded Reid downstairs at every
opportunity. Reid also had a point deducted for a low left hook, in the ninth, which was the third bad round in a row for Reid. A right almost
had him down. As for the 11th round, it was amazing that Reid survived, although he was helped when referee Halpern interrupted Tito’s offensive
to tell the judges to take the second point from the Puerto Rican. Reid took the sort of demoralising pummelling that can stay with a
fighter. The cut and the bruises will heal, but one must wonder whether his confidence will ever be the same. Afterwards, asked if he regretted not jumping on Tito in the third after scoring the knockdown, he said: "Yes I do kinda regret it, but
this is boxing and you have to learn from experience." He added: "I felt close to victory, but I couldn’t hit him with the shots to finish him." But, perhaps fearful of running into a Tito trap, Reid did not throw the punches. He confessed ruefully that he had let Trinidad dictate the pace once the Puerto Rican decided to step up the pressure. Trinidad said, through an interpreter: "David Reid is a good fighter.
When I went down, he hurt me. He hit me with a good right hand. When I was down on the canvas my first thought was: ‘When I get up, it’s all
over for David Reid.’ "As a welterweight I always hit hard, but as a super welter I hit harder. I’m so strong and hit so hard, if Oscar had stopped to fight,
I’d have knocked him out." Oscar De La Hoya. That name again. It will probably come up every time Trinidad fights, just as Tito’s will when Oscar boxes. Don King insists
that the public will demand the two meet again. It may be later than he hopes rather than sooner, but one suspects that King could be right. |
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