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Photo © Marty Rosengarten/ HoganPhotos.com
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Saturday night’s match-up between Felix Trinidad and Ricardo Mayorga was what fight fans needed to get after two weeks in which Oscar De La Hoya got stopped by a “body shot” from Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. got “old” and beaten up by Glen Johnson in a one sided decision.
Being at Madison Square in person was a thing to behold. Nineteen thousand plus fans screaming at the top of their lungs; in fact there was screaming, crying, yelling and fainting going on, and this was from the male fans, forget about the women. People were standing from the singing of the National Anthems until the final stoppage. This was truly like no fight atmosphere I’d seen before in the years that I’ve covered the sport.
Give Ricardo Mayorga all the credit in the world. He’s not a middleweight, but yet he got in there and stood toe to toe with one of the biggest punchers in boxing bar none, in his first fight at 160. I’m not going to say he fought a smart fight. I don’t think I can remember a man standing in there with Felix Trinidad and trying to take his punches. It was clear after Mayorga stuck his chin out for Tito to hit that he was out of his league, notice how after the second hook landed Mayorga started to do a little dance. Yes, it is a lot easier to take a punch when you know what’s coming but man, the legs don’t lie.
I hope for Ricardo Mayorga’s sake that he does a couple of things: First is to make sure that he gets his $2.8 million dollars for this fight in his hand or bank account. Second is go back down in weight if he is going to continue to box. Mayorga doesn’t belong at 160 pounds, he has a lot more power at 147 or 154 and the guys down there don’t punch like Tito. Third is to take a little time off, learn how to box a little bit more.
The media and fans in this country fell in love with his bravado and willingness to say whatever was on his mind. Those people who are with you when you win could care less about you when you lose; you all know the saying “Success has 1,000 fathers, failure is an Orphan.”
Mayorga's wild skills were effective really for two fights, versus Andrew Lewis and the other versus Vernon Forrest the first time aorund. Since then he lost to Cory Spinks in a decision and barely got by Forrest the second time they fought. I also hope that he can stay out of trouble but that doesn’t seem likely, but there’s reason to hope.
The sad thing is I don’t think he’ll ever be the same fighter after this one. He took more punishment in this fight vs. Tito than Vargas did when he fought Trinidad back in December of 2000. Ricardo Mayorga's pride and ego may have just written him a check that his head can’t cash.
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© Copyright / All Rights reserved: Doghouse Boxing 1998-2004
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By Aladdin Freeman (October 5, 2004) 
