Tito Trinidad vs Roy Jones Jr - Can they live up to their names?
 By Rob Scott (Aug 20, 2007) Doghouse Boxing (Photo © David Martin Warr/DKP)
For the past few weeks we have heard of the proposed match-up between boxing greats Felix ‘Tito’ Trinidad and Roy Jones Jr. After Monday’s press conference announcing the fight, we find ourselves that much closer to the fight becoming a reality, but will the fight be one that knocks us out?
What goes up – must come down, and if you look closely at the careers of both Jones, 51-4 (38), and Trinidad, 42-2 (35), you know they have had their share of people who have seen them as the cream that would forever
remain at the top, and the others who reveled in their descent, because they’ve always felt these two greats were overrated. Notice I said “great”, because then there can be no mistake on my opinion of both.
In 2001, when the idea of these two facing one another seemed to be the inevitable, curiosity and intrigue were definitely two things that fight fans felt. Fast forward to 2007 and with the maybe slowly turning into a reality, the intrigue has lost a bit of its zeal, but the curiosity remains. The only thing is, at this late stage, the questions and thoughts have changed.
In 2001, both were at the top of their game, so a match-up between these two was something that was more than welcome. But the two worded question of (why not?), has given way to the simple one word of (why?). Why should we care at this late stage? Just who will tune in to see the older versions of these two ‘great’ fighters?
Boxing has backed it’s self up against the wall, where in the past we have drained a fighter’s name like a person ringing out a rag. It’s because of the past over usage of certain fighter’s names, that we haven’t allowed the names of others to
surface. It’s because new blooded names aren’t being heard, that we hear that much overused notion of boxing being a passé sport. It’s because of this unfortunate fact that we look at some of the current fights as great fights, but not events – an event needs a name.
Trinidad and Jones both have names that are known by many, but the problem is many know that they aren’t what they use to be. It's this fact that leaves these two not fighting in an event, but fighting to re-invent themselves.
Felix Trinidad hasn’t fought in over two years; with his last showing being a loss to Ronald ‘Winky’ Wright in 2005 in an embarrassingly one sided affair that seemed to tap into his drive to continue in the ring. An immediate announcement of retirement followed that loss, his second exit from the sport since 2002.
Jones, once the figure who shined from the bling of every light heavyweight belt out there in boxing, has more recently let that image be seemingly overshadowed by the sights of him being knocked out in consecutive 2004 bouts. Since those losses, the Roy Jones that dazzled in times past has given the impression that the past will remain there, never to enter his future.
Both have had nights which left indelible impressions on us. It’s those many nights that we have grown to know the names of Trinidad and Jones. It’s nights like those which find fighters returning again and again, but these two are actually finding themselves in more than just a fight against one another, they are in a fight to prove that the names Trinidad and Jones, at this point, aren’t just that – names.
Realistically, there shouldn’t be any detractors on names that are still forces, but if those names are all name and have nothing to contribute physically to the game, then those figures are destined to not only hurt themselves, but the sport as well.
The target date is January 2008 for these two greats to collide, and there is that chance that we will be just left with names. The fortunate part is the names are Trinidad and Jones, fighters who If I was a betting man, would wager their pairing to be a better match-up than that of the likes of Trinidad conquerors, Bernard Hopkins and ‘Winky’ Wright.
Bottom line, they say good things come to those who wait, but this fight has taken six years to make, and all the knowledge of rocket science isn’t needed to know that 2008, if and when they meet, just may give us a good fight, but not the great one that our patience deserves. But even with that being said, let’s not lose sight that these two have given us great excitement in the past, and if they’re performances move from their version of great to good, then their version of good can be a great thing in itself.
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