FELIX TRINIDAD

PROFILE AND BIO (Part 1 of 2)

There had been a void in boxing since May 11, 2002. It was on the date that Felix Trinidad stopped Hacine Cherifi in round four in his native Puerto Rico. Shortly thereafter, he decided to retire, unable to lure Bernard Hopkins into a rematch after suffering his sole loss to "The Executioner" in an illustrious career. After winning world titles in three divisions and defeating three Olympic gold medalists, Trinidad decided he had had enough, until 2004 when he returned to the ring against a dangerous middleweight opponent, former World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council welterweight champion, Ricardo Mayorga.

The scene was electrifying in October 2004 when the partisan Puerto Rican crowd raucously welcomed their hero back to the ring. In what was later called the "Latino Hagler-Hearns" by journalist, Thomas Gerbasi, Mayorga who has a penchant for smoking and drinking whether in training or not, got Trinidad's attention after the first bell by winging bombs, some of which landed, while trying to score a knockout. Trinidad weathered the barrage and landed his patented left hooks, and a host of right hands, that delivered on promoter Don King's pre-fight promise of this being a "fight fans fight" for the ages.

In the third round, Mayorga caught Trinidad with a wild right that forced "Tito" to touch the canvas with his left glove resulting in an unpopular knockdown call. Mayorga tried to do the same in the fourth round, but Trinidad made him pay with whipping shots to the head that sent sweat spraying into ringside seats.

In the fifth round, Trinidad and Mayorga continued their torrid pace, but a nasty gash appeared under the Nicaraguan's left eye. Mayorga finally dropped to the canvas in the eighth round after Trinidad battered him with a body shot. He gamely rose only to be sent to the canvas again from a left hook from Trinidad. An obviously hurt Mayorga refused to quit but was forced to take a knee before referee Steve Smoger had seen enough of the carnage and stopped the fight in the eighth round.

From 1999 to 2001, Trinidad was one of the hottest boxers in the world, consistently near the top of most experts' pound-for-pound best lists. Following in the footsteps of Puerto Rico's great world champions, including Wilfredo Gomez and Wilfred Benitez, Trinidad's insatiable drive to fight the best champions reached new heights in September 1998, when, as the IBF welterweight champion, he tangled with WBC welterweight champion, Oscar De La Hoya, in a fight dubbed "The Fight of the Millennium". Trinidad weathered a slow start to bang a retreating De La Hoya in the last four rounds and triumph by majority decision. Trinidad's two-handed power was too much for "The Golden Boy", who faded badly in the last three rounds.

Following the victory, which set a pay-per-view record for a non-heavyweight title fight, Trinidad and his camp returned to his native island to an unprecedented celebration that literally closed the capital city for the day. Thousands of flag-waving islanders cheered wildly at the airport and along the parade route into San Juan.

After De La Hoya did not show up for a scheduled meeting in response to De La Hoya's request for a rematch, King and Trinidad decided to move on. Trinidad's next decision was bold and dangerous. He decided to move up to the 154-pound division and face a world champion in WBA super welterweight, David Reid in March 2000. In a sold out bout, Trinidad clawed back from a third-round knockdown, and a point deduction, to floor Reid four times including three times in the 11th, on his way to a convincing, unanimous decision.

Now the WBA super welterweight champion, Trinidad, set his sights on 154-pound world-title unification against one of the only fighters in the world that could match his heart in the ring, "Ferocious" Fernando Vargas, the IBF junior middleweight champion, who was 20-0 and had never been knocked down in his career - amateur or professional.

In December 2000, in what turned out to be Fight of the Year, according to the Boxing Writers Association of America, USA TODAY, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Cleveland Plain Dealer, San Antonio Express-News and others; a career-defining fight for both fighters; and one of the better fights in history, Vargas tasted the canvas for the first time in his entire career in the first round. Trinidad had slipped past a Vargas jab to counter with a devastating left hook. Vargas made it to his feet long enough to walk into another powerful left hook, which floored him for the second time. Vargas had been in the ring with Trnidad for less than a minute. It appeared the end was near. Now, many learned, it was clear why De La Hoya chose to run from Trinidad.

Vargas survived the first round and slowly built momentum before shocking Trinidad, and the crowd, with a left-hook knockdown of his own in the fourth round that left the Puerto Rican sliding across the canvas on his trunks. Trinidad then built an insurmountable scorecard lead going into the 12th and final round. He could have shuffled away from Vargas' haymakers, but, as he had promised, he stood toe to toe with him, repelled his advances and scored three knockdowns in the round - the last of which came from a right hand that Marc Kriegel of the New York Daily News said, "dropped Vargas like a gunshot." Referee, Jay Nady, mercifully ended the punishment there.

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