By Johnny Ortiz
If anyone caught the name of the fellow who passed himself off as Tito Trinidad Saturday night, please let me know. I am still a little shell-shocked at the lackluster performance handed in by former three-division champion Felix “Tito” Trinidad. Entering the ring as the prefight favorite, Felix smiled and waved at fans as though he were merely making an appearance for the sake of the ticket and PPV sales, that he would quickly take care of the nuisance who stood across the ring from him, a pesky, former jr. middleweight champion by the name of Robert “Winky” Wright.
How a fighter the caliber of Tito Trinidad can go a full twelve rounds landing only 5 percent of his jabs (15), and only 10 percent (58) of his total punches is beyond fistic belief. I, in no way, have any intention of minimizing a brilliant, masterful defensive and offensive performance by Winky Wright, he did everything that was asked of him, while backing up everything he said he would do in the fight.
The fact remains that for my own edification, there are questions I need answered. As a former trainer, watching a fight on TV, I have a habit of trying to listen in to the instructions given in a fighter’s corner in-between rounds. Not once during the entire fight did I hear anything constructive being said in Tito’s corner about how to go about getting Winky’s hands to come down. When a fighter holds his hands high, there are three ways to get his hands to come down…body punches, uppercuts and most importantly…bang the middle fleshy part of his arms, not necessarily in that order.
Case in point: Remember when Muhammad Ali beat George Foreman into submission when he implemented “the rope-a dope”? The only reason Ali was able to beat George was due to the fact that Foreman had taken care of everyone he had fought previously inside five rounds, he never really trained to go a long distance, he hoped to dispose of Muhammad in much the same manner as he had done to all the others. Ali, realizing this, allowed George to punch himself out by punching the gloves that Ali held high to protect his head.
There is something concerning “The Rumble in the Jungle” fight that has always bothered me, having seen George hit a heavy bag in the gym, I vividly remember seeing him land a huge right hook, sending the bag flying high into the air. Wow! Was I impressed! I have never seen anyone, before or since, ever hit a bag so hard that it took flight. The point I am making is, why didn’t George, when Ali was lying on the ropes, hands held high, ala Winky Wright, step back and position himself to throw a monster left hook followed by a right hook, both to the middle part of the arms where there is nothing but flesh and bone? Had he done this every time Ali tried the rope-a-dope, it would not have taken long for Ali’s hands to start coming down. As ridiculously hard as George hit, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that he could have broken bones.
Joe Louis, when he fought Rocky Marciano, said it was the only time anyone he had ever fought had put knots in his arms. That’s what made Rocky such an awesome, offensive fighter…he hit anything and everything that was open. Since modern boxing began, old time fighters were taught by great trainers to – under these ‘hands held high’ circumstances – “bang the arms.” I can remember the famous old trainer Duke Holloway teaching me this old theory when I was a kid.
In the fight Saturday night, not once did Tito’s corner tell him to use any of the three ways to bring Winky’s hands down. Tito threw a fair number of left hooks, his money punch, but they all landed high on Winky’s gloves, doing minimal damage. This is what I find so hard to understand, with all of Tito’s experience, why didn’t he instinctively beat Winky’s arms, throw more body punches, or fire uppercuts in order to eventually get a shot at his chin?
Winky has admitted that he respected Tito’s left hook, he felt the power even though it hit his gloves. Winky said: “I had to watch out for his punching power because he has a great hook. I just kept my eye on the hook and boxed around and moved.” In reality, Winky had nothing to worry about, without Tito being interested in bringing down his hands, he had one of the easiest fights of his career, he outlanded Tito 262-58 in total punches over the twelve rounds, believe it or not, that breaks down to Felix landing a grand total of five punches per round. In the jab department, Winky put out 49 jabs per round for a total of 185 jabs, while Tito landed only 15 jabs for the entire fight. What makes this all so hard to believe is that in his comeback fight against Ricardo Mayorga, Tito threw 55 punches in the fifth round of their fight, in the Wright fight, he managed to land only 58 total punches in twelve rounds, only three less than in the fifth round against Mayorga. Go figure!
I do know that from all of the things Trinidad said to the press two weeks before his fight with Winky, he seemed to talk more about his ‘revenge’ fight with Bernard Hopkins than he did about his upcoming fight with Winky. Winky Wright might have put it in perspective when he commented: “Five days before the fight, Trinidad was making a mistake by speaking so openly of his desire for a rematch against undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins and he proved that on Saturday. I think they underestimated me a little bit, I moved up from jr. middleweight, but he didn’t know I’d be that strong.”
It could very well be that Tito and his dad, Felix Sr. did indeed look past Winky, ‘shame on them,’ they both should have known better than to take anyone for granted. It is a huge “Fighter Sin” to do so. Winky made them pay a huge price, instead of Tito fighting the winner of Hopkins-Taylor, Winky now deserves to fight the victor.
I hate to beat a dead horse, but listening in to Tito’s corner in-between rounds, there never seemed to be any urgency, no one seemed to notice that Tito was getting shellacked round after round. No other game plans were ever discussed, that has to tell me that they never included any during their training camp, there can be no excuses, Tito himself said that he was entering the fight in the best shape of his life, reading that he sparred 260 rounds in preparation for the contest tells me he must have indeed been in excellent condition. All that preparation, and he still fought a terrible fight. His defense was awful; he ate Winky’s right hand jabs and chased them down all evening with some three-punch flurries. In February of 1999, Tito landed 54% of his punches against an excellent defensive fighter in Pernell Whitaker. He put Pernell down once in winning a unanimous twelve round decision.
I do not want to hear that Tito might have seen better days, he had a good, body healing, two year layoff, doesn’t do drugs or drink, he came back very rested to win an impressive comeback fight against a dangerous opponent. He is only 32 years old, the fighter I saw KO Mayorga had a lot of fight left in him. Simply put, that was not the Tito Trinidad I have seen beat the best fighters of his era.
It is still hard for me to believe that no one in his corner could advice him how to bring down Winky’s hands. Maybe they were thinking of the ten million dollar purse they would be cutting up. Winky Wright’s defense and a steady diet of right hand jabs won the fight big for him. I think Tito got mad if Winky missed him with his jab.
Felix Trinidad’s statement that he would again go into retirement tells me that he once again has no desire to continue fighting. He blames it on his father wanting to retire from boxing. Without Don Felix in his corner, he feels he can no longer continue. If his father wants no more of the fight game, meaning he has lost faith in his boy, why should Tito continue? He was rich before the fight, now he is a lot richer.
Maybe the loss is a blessing in disguise, it was not a given that he would have beaten Bernard Hopkins had he won. I would not have hesitated to again pick “The Executioner” had they fought a rematch. The way Tito looked Saturday night, Bernard would beat him if he were 50!
I wrote in my last article that Winky had to fight a near perfect fight…he did! I just didn’t think he would win every round. Speaking of rounds, it sure wasn’t the most exciting fight I have ever watched, especially after watching the blood and guts fight between Castillo and Corrales. Each round of Trinidad-Wright was the duplicate of the round before. One came to fight…one did not! Fifteen total jabs, fifty-eight total punches…that tells the whole story.
In the final analysis, although Felix Trinidad is ten million dollars richer, it is still hard to believe that he was completely white-washed by a fighter who in his last fight won a narrow, split decision over former jr. middleweight champion “Sugar” Shane Mosley. The great way Winky fought compared to the horrendous performance by Tito, will always make me wonder what might have been.
Tito, I believe I speak for your biggest fans…thanks for the many great memories…have a good life with the love of your family and your adoring Puerto Rican fans…don’t look back!
I loved it when Winky was asked prior to the fight Saturday night if he and Felix intended to put on another fight such as Castillo-Corrales. Winky intelligently replied: “Hell no! Are you crazy! I don’t put myself into fights like that, I don’t need to.” Very well said from a very smart fighter who will always live to fight another day.
I also wrote in my last article, “If Winky wins, my hat’s off to him…Winky, consider it done. “To the victor go the spoils!”
This coming Saturday, HBO Sports presents the exclusive delay broadcast of Trinidad-Wright paired with the live HBO World Championship Boxing telecast from Chicago, featuring WBO Heavyweight Champion Lamont Brewster vs. Andrew Golota.
I believe that Andrew Go Low ta will finally catch the elusive butterfly of heavyweight champions. In Brewster, he should, if he doesn’t suddenly decide to go off to see the Wizard, win.
Can you imagine…Andrew Golota…Heavyweight Champion of the World!
UNTIL THE NEXT ROUND…PEACE AND GOD BLESS!
