Few boxers caught the imagination like Puerto Rican puncher Felix Trinidad.
Trinidad stopped 35 of his 42 victims on his way to the International Boxing Hall of Fame and inspired a generation of fighters from his homeland and beyond.
One who has gone back and studied the legendary Trinidad is Edgar Berlanga, for whom Trinidad was a staple ingredient of his boxing education over the years.
“When Trinidad lost [Bernard] Hopkins, I had the tape and I used to put in my DVR when I was a kid. I was like four or five, I used to put in the DVR and I used to rewatch the fight,” Berlanga recalled. “And when he got knocked down and stuff and he lost, I used to cry and my mom wanted to burn the DVR because she's like, ‘Yo, you’re not going to keep fucking putting on the DVR.’ I’ll watch him lose and I’ll start crying. And it was just all over and over. She was like, ‘Yeah, I'm gonna throw it out because you keep putting this tape inside the DVR and you keep crying. And then she wound up taking it away from me ‘cause I kept doing it.”
For Berlanga, Trinidad had ‘the it factor’.
“My whole family's Puerto Rican, but you got the New York Ricans and then you got people that was born in Puerto Rico, and he had a big impact.”
When Trinidad fought, the Berlangas had family gatherings, but it was arguably the loss to Hopkins in 2001, and the subsequent heartbreak, that Berlanga recalls most.
Even today, Berlanga might put on Trinidad’s ringwalk from that memorable night at Madison Square Garden on YouTube.
“That’s the most legendary walk I’ve ever seen in my life,” Berlanga said.
“That was crazy. Even watching it now. I still watch it. I still go on YouTube and I still put in the Tito Trinidad entrance when he fought Bernard Hopkins on YouTube. I love watching that.
“That’s my goal, to fight at the big arena and Madison Square Garden and do the same thing. Like if we fight [Jaime] Munguia, I want to do the same thing. It has to be like that. Trinidad’s definitely a big influence in my life as a fighter.”
Other influences for Berlanga were from Brooklyn, where he grew up, including Mike Tyson and Riddick Bowe, and through time he became immersed in the sport that has given him fame, wealth and an identity.
“I love boxing,” Berlanga added. “I’m kind of scared when I retire because boxing is all I know. Boxing is something I’ve been doing since I was seven years old. And me being retired, I’m gonna probably have to find something to cover that. To go in and basically fulfil me because boxing fulfils me with everything… when I’m angry, when I’m sad.
“I done been through so much with boxing that I just love the sport. I just pulled up to the gym now and I’m excited. I love being in the gym. I love the environment. That’s why I make my money, that’s why I feed my family, that’s what my life changed – was in that boxing gym. It wasn’t me wearing chains or me trying to act like… it was me being in that gym, putting in that work. It changed my life.”
Berlanga has followed the sport closely enough to know that not all fighters have stories of unabated success and not all of them thrive in life after the final bell. With that in mind, he wants to make sure he does not fall into the same traps that others have.
Trinidad had two years out, then returned. Then he had three years out, and came back again.
“So I’d be thinking like, damn, five, six years down the line, like, what am I going to do? I got to start at least planting a seed in something that when I’m ready to retire in six years, in five years, by the time I'm 33, I want to leave. I got to find something, because a lot of fighters… They lose their mind, they start becoming alcoholics, drug addicts. Not saying that’s something I’ll do, but it happens. Because of the stress, because they don’t live that life no more, they don’t have that stardom, because when you retire, everything slows down. “You’re not fighting no more. You don’t have 20,000 people in front of you watching you fight. It’s different. I’m starting to look at it like my second love, what I’m passionate about. “I’m definitely going to miss the discipline for sure, because being in camp is hard. But it’s dope how you could be away for three, four months, just training, waking up, eating right, like just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Boxing taught me a lot on discipline and being focused. I know for sure, one thing I’ll miss with boxing is just fighting in front of a crowd of people. That’s something you can’t buy right there… It’s hard to get away from the sport. That’s why I saw these older men going in there and getting it on with these exhibitions, because it’s hard. It’s hard to get away from boxing. These guys been doing it for so long, since they was kids.”
