Felix Trinidad at Middleweight

[Thread Stealer]

I see a lot of people saying that Tito wasn't much at 160, and was a blown-up WW. I don't think that's quite accurate, as he was a big guy for WW, and also had a great short run at 154.

Trinidad had already started to fall in love a bit too much with his power (look at the Carr fight in 94' and then watch him in 00-01), but was still a guy with a lot of tools. Monster left hook, good straight right hand, heavy jab, picked punches well. Tito dominated the consensus #2 MW at the time in William Joppy. However, it was a pretty poor division. Joppy was a decent titleholder.

Trinidad got dominated by Hopkins, but Hopkins is an ATG. Then there were his wins over Cherifi and Mayorga, and his awful performance against Winky.

Overall, what are your opinions of Tito as a middleweight?

I think 154 was ideal for him at the time, 160 was a division too big but just how much moving up affected his abilities gets exaggerated. The guy lost to one of the greatest middleweights ever, and another excellent fighter in Wright.

He was still a very good fighter that I'd pick over recent lineal middleweight champs such as Cotto, Martinez, and possibly Taylor.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Obviously tito wasn't at his best weight at 160, but he was still a very good fighter there.

I think tito could be a champ in some eras, he just wasn't better than hopkins..


People wanna say he wasn't anything special post hand wrap incident vs hopkins.. But look at his opponents and even pre-wrap tito would have done the same..
Lose to hopkins... Probably inevitable no matter what
Ko cherifi... As you would expect
Ko mayorga... Pretty impressive at the time considering the long layoff
Wide decision loss to winky.. Horrible performance by tito, but he was against one of the defenders of the era, and winky never gets stopped.. I also think tito came in unmotivated and didn't respect winky, or think he was much of a threat with winky' lack of power..

Overall tito was a very good middleweight.. Not a great one, but is highly capable middleweight..

[Scott9945]

Obviously tito wasn't at his best weight at 160, but he was still a very good fighter there.

I think tito could be a champ in some eras, he just wasn't better than hopkins..


People wanna say he wasn't anything special post hand wrap incident vs hopkins.. But look at his opponents and even pre-wrap tito would have done the same..
Lose to hopkins... Probably inevitable no matter what
Ko cherifi... As you would expect
Ko mayorga... Pretty impressive at the time considering the long layoff
Wide decision loss to winky.. Horrible performance by tito, but he was against one of the defenders of the era, and winky never gets stopped.. I also think tito came in unmotivated and didn't respect winky, or think he was much of a threat with winky' lack of power..

Overall tito was a very good middleweight.. Not a great one, but is highly capable middleweight..

Very reasonable analysis. Trinidad would struggle with top boxers, but any middleweight who traded with him would be putting himself at risk of being KO'd.

[Mintcar923]

Hopkins gave him a boxing lesson and Wright schooled him.. Other than that he did OK..

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Very reasonable analysis. Trinidad would struggle with top boxers, but any middleweight who traded with him would be putting himself at risk of being KO'd.

Tito vs jermain taylor, pavlik, benn, mccellen

Those would have been some barnburners and probably the highest caliber dudes tito could beat at middleweight..

Toney would bomb tito into next week

[Suckmedry]

Tito-Golovkin would be an amazing fight.

[TBear]

I thought his performance against Joppy was impressive.

[The Old LefHook]

Dead in the water.

[elfag]

Tito vs jermain taylor, pavlik, benn, mccellen

Those would have been some barnburners and probably the highest caliber dudes tito could beat at middleweight..

Toney would bomb tito into next week

yeah tito's run was short lived and he lost to some HOF's in hopkins and wright. Tito vs taylor and pavlik would have been awesome, I think though they end up exchanging and he comes out on the losing end but you never know. The division is pretty week right now, he beats everyone but GGG and Canelo and even those I would like to see. Hes got a better chance against GGG I think due to that leaky defense, canelo is the faster and better boxer.

[elfag]

Obviously tito wasn't at his best weight at 160, but he was still a very good fighter there.

I think tito could be a champ in some eras, he just wasn't better than hopkins..


People wanna say he wasn't anything special post hand wrap incident vs hopkins.. But look at his opponents and even pre-wrap tito would have done the same..
Lose to hopkins... Probably inevitable no matter what
Ko cherifi... As you would expect
Ko mayorga... Pretty impressive at the time considering the long layoff
Wide decision loss to winky.. Horrible performance by tito, but he was against one of the defenders of the era, and winky never gets stopped.. I also think tito came in unmotivated and didn't respect winky, or think he was much of a threat with winky' lack of power..

Overall tito was a very good middleweight.. Not a great one, but is highly capable middleweight..

Yeah winky had no power in power punches but that jab was stiff enough to control a lot of fights, was a righty fighting southpaw.