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10/03/2004 Archived Entry: "Trinidad Tames Mayorga!"
Trinidad Tames Mayorga!
Wildman succumbs after 8 brutal rounds of punishment
by Todd Hodgson at ringside
Felix Trinidad successfully returned to Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, out-boxing, repeatedly dropping, and stopping Ricardo "El Matador" Mayorga in the eighth round of a brutal and exciting 12-round middleweight “title” fight. It was the third-largest gate in Madison Square Garden history, drawing 17,406 spirited, mostly Puerto Rican fans and likely well over $4 million.
With the win, Trinidad secured two irrelevant, vacant middleweight belts.
Mayorga (27-5; 23) forced the action from the opening bell and controlled most of the first round with a steady attack. Trinidad (42-1; 35) came on late in the round. As he’d promised, Mayorga dropped his guard and invited Trinidad to hit his chin. And Trinidad obliged, hammering Mayorga with left hooks and a right hand that appeared to stun the Nicaraguan.
Trinidad jabbed effectively throughout the fight, snapping Mayorga’s head on several occasions. And although Trinidad was missing his left hooks more than fans are used to seeing, he showed his versatility by connecting with counter rights and uppercuts, especially late in the fight. Aside from suffering a flash knockdown in the third, Trinidad controlled the fight, bouncing jabs and right hands off of Mayorga’s head repeatedly throughout the fourth round.
The intense action continued in the fifth, but Trinidad was taking full charge, as he battered the Nicaraguan against the ropes to end the round and cut him under his left eye. Trinidad raised his hand to the crowd before the sixth, as though he knew that it was just a matter of time.
After taking another frightful beating in the seventh, Mayorga came out strong in the eighth, perhaps sensing that his end was near. Trinidad finally dropped Mayorga with a body shot midway through the round. It looked as though Mayorga would stay down, but he rose, only to be dropped again seconds later by a Trinidad hook to the head.
Referee Steve Smoger stopped the fight after Mayorga went down for the third time in the eighth. It was the most exciting one-sided fight of the year, almost absent of clinches or dancing.
Mayorga was generally seen as a legitimate threat to beat Trinidad, who hadn’t fought a championship-caliber opponent in three years, when he was manhandled by Bernard Hopkins. But Mayorga was probably the best opponent for Trinidad to look spectacular against and still get high praise. Mayorga had absolutely no head movement and was devoid of a game plan, and he was determined to brawl, even after getting badly hurt.
Most surprising, though, was that Mayorga managed to avoid Trinidad’s left hooks throughout most of the fight. Although Trinidad landed an incredible 66% of his power punches, he frequently fanned with what has been his best punch. A bit of ring rust, probably, but there are still questions about Trinidad’s timing, and it’ll be interesting to see how he deals with an opponent with more than one dimension. A few fights might be necessary for him to recover the form he had against William Joppy in 2001. Also, even the most ardent Mayorga apologist must finally acknowledge that their man is limited yet gutsy brawler with one convincing world-class win, and that win was two weight classes below where he fought tonight.
But negative speculation aside, Trinidad did what he was supposed to do, cutting down the courageous Mayorga, breaking his will, and sending him back to Nicaragua humiliated, to face rape charges—and possibly finished as a fighter.
And given the recent losses of Oscar De La Hoya, Roy Jones Jr., and Mike Tyson, Trinidad’s comeback will help invigorate a struggling sport. He has said he wants only big fights, and though he didn’t commit to a Hopkins rematch at the post-fight press conference, he said it’s a possibility. Don King, however, indicated that because Trinidad would be the draw of a Hopkins rematch, Trinidad should receive the bigger purse. We know how Hopkins will react to that, but there’s little doubt that a rematch with Trinidad is Hopkins’ most compelling match. Hopkins was in attendance at Madison Square Garden, and he was booed and jeered by the Puerto Rican crowd when he entered the area and when he was announced by Michael Buffer.
(Other fighters seated at ringside included Riddick Bowe, Evander Holyfield, Chris Byrd, Jameel McCline, Andrew Golota, John Ruiz, Fres Oquendo, Kali Meehan, Hasim Rahman, Arturo Gatti, Lennox Lewis, and Mike Tyson.)
King also criticized HBO for not allowing him to properly promote Trinidad-Mayorga, and he indicated that Trinidad has one fight left on an HBO contract, after which he would consider another network. He went on to criticize Larry Merchant for 10 to 15 minutes, while press wearily waited for Trinidad to appear at the press conference and talk about the evening’s fight.
In the co-main event, Brooklyn, New York’s, Zab Judah (32-2; 23) knocked down overmatched Wayne Martell (24-3; 15) of Denver five times in the opening round of a scheduled 12-round fight, winning by TKO when referee Benji Esteves stopped the fight at 2:08. Judah defended his WBO Intercontinental title with the win.
Both Judah and King said that a rematch with Corey Spinks is their desired bout, although fight with Kermit Cintron might be more compelling.
In a WBA super-welterweight title fight, Travis Simms (24-0; 18) retained his title, winning a 12-round unanimous decision over Bronco McKart (47-6; 31), with scores of 116-112,
“I fought and beat one of the best fighters in the division that few boxers want to face,” Simms said. “Now I want the winner of Wright vs. Mosley.”
A sportsmanlike McKart accepted the loss and was unashamed of his performance. “I think I followed him around too much, but I wanted to be aggressive,” McKart said. “Simms deserved the win.”
Rosendo Álvarez lost his WBA light-flyweight title at the scales, failing to make the 108-pound limit by coming in almost four pounds overweight.
Nonetheless, Álvarez (33-2; 21) defeated Bebis Mendoza (30-3; 24) for the third straight time, grinding out a disappointing 12-round split decision and thus rendering the WBA title vacant. The two have fought each other four times, and the fight showed it, lacking any drama or meaningful action.
“Nothing affected me more in this fight than my opponent,” Álvarez claimed. “I fought a gladiator for the fourth time, and every time has been a war. I want to apologize to my promoter, my country, and my family for not making weight. This will be my last fight in the 108-pound division.”
Mendoza, meanwhile, goes back to the drawing board: “I know I won that fight. Álvarez has been and continues to be an irresponsible person. He came in overweight, but I felt I beat him even though he had an unfair advantage.”
Other undercard action: Elio Rojas (5-0; 4) defeated Corey Goodwin (3-1; 1) in an uncompetitive featherweight bout, stopping him at 1:05 of the first round.
Luis Collazo of Brooklyn, New York, improved to 22-1 (9) with a unanimous decision over southpaw Felix Flores of Puerto Rico in a closely contested, crowd-pleasing welterweight fight. Flores fell to 19-4 (15).
Miamian Danny Santiago beat Elvir Muriqi, violently pounding him to the canvas twice in the fourth round of a scheduled 10-round fight. Muriqi, who had been trained by Teddy Atlas until this year, fell to 30-2 (18). He was ahead on all scorecards at the time of the stoppage. Santiago improved to 24-2 (16). Cruiserweight Steve Cunningham (16-0; 9) knocked out Forrest Neal (16-5; 12) in the fourth round, and heavyweight Mario Preskar (5-0-1; 3) KO’d overmatched Danny Weiland (1-1; 1) in 37 seconds.
Replies: 1 Comment made on this article
Its about time that Tito came back!!!! And its about time that someone shut up MAYORGA!!!i WAS SO HAPPY TO SEE TITO BEAT HIM!!!
Posted by boricuainc2004@yahoo.com">jaylin @ 10/07/2004 08:32 AM EST
