THE date was Sept. 29, 2001. The venue: Madison Square Garden in New York. The event was billed fittingly as “And There Was One” because it sought to crown a unified middleweight champion, the last one being “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler.
At that time, Felix “Tito” Trinidad was on a roll. He remained undefeated after a controversial victory over Oscar dela Hoya at welterweight. He then moved up in weight and demolished the top junior middleweights in David Reid, Mamadou Thiam and Fernando Vargas. Now he eyed a bigger prize in a bigger division. He wanted middleweight dominance--no small feat for someone who was a 147-pound champion just two years prior.
He had already taken out one of the middleweight champions in William Joppy and wrested his WBA title in the process. Now, he had to beat the baddest of them all--the reigning WBC champion Bernard Hopkins.
Hopkins was already one of the best in the sport, but he was not yet a superstar. He craved the recognition he felt he so richly deserved.
Coming into the fight, he told everybody this fight was his meal ticket out. Almost nobody believed him. The oddsmakers had Trinidad the favorite. This Last Rounder begged to differ. Looking back, I called this fight correctly and was so sure of it.
THE FIGHT. Hopkins, the bigger man, allowed Trinidad to play out all his cards. Ever the wise tactician, he let Tito unload all his arsenal, wisely countering him here and there, defending well and giving him a lesson on boxing gamesmanship.
Coming into the fight, Hopkins felt he could take Tito’s punches. He also referred to Tito’s style as “herky jerky” and predicted he would knock him out after the latter had blown his load.
True enough in the middle rounds, Hopkins got more active and landed the cleaner blows. Trinidad tried to soldier on but the deceptively quick Hopkins eluded his power shots and outclassed him round after round.
He successfully smothered Tito’s offense, tying him up effectively when he tried to mount an attack and landing sneaky right hands. It was almost as Hopkins predicted it. He knew that Tito would fall once the latter realizes he couldn’t beat him.
True enough, Tito started to fade and in the eleventh, Hopkins really put the hurt on him. A badly beaten Trinidad answered the 12th round on wobbly legs and Hopkins laid out the coup de grace in the two-minute mark with a right hand that knocks down Tito.
Felix Trinidad Sr. would come in to save his son from further punishment and the ref called for the denouement of the fight.
AFTERMATH. Trinidad fought four more times but was never the same fighter after this knockout loss. His last two fights were defeats to Ronald Wright and Roy Jones. Hopkins was able to parlay this victory into superstardom and go on to become one of the greatest fighters in boxing history.
VERBATIM. Doing this will put me in a stage where no one will deny me Hall of Fame status. I’ll be talked about forever--Bernard Hopkins (www.bbc.co.uk)
LAST ROUND. It’s on Atty. Eunice Pasatiempo of the Public Attorney’s Office in Talisay City who recently celebrated her birthday. Cheers!