08.01.07 – By Phil Santos – Overhandright.com – Roy Jones Jr. vs. Felix Trinidad (January 19th HBO): One would think that in a battle between two formerly great fighters that a winner would be tough to predict. While that may be true in most instances in the case of Roy Jones and Felix Trinidad the outcome seems fairly obvious.
Roy Jones Jr. was boxings’ Pound for Pound king for years. He was Goliath while everyone else from Middleweight to Light Heavy was David without the slingshot. Quite frankly Jones was unbeatable. The man was so quick and so strong that the sports fundamentals just didn’t apply to his game. Jones vanquished Bernard Hopkins and James Toney in their primes and what’s crazy is he made it look easy! Jones then toppled current top Light Heavyweight Clinton Woods before jumping up to Heavyweight to defeat WBA champion John Ruiz. The next chapter of Jones career wasn’t well written. He narrowly defeated Antonio Tarver, granted him a rematch, and suffered the worst, and in my eyes first legitimate, loss of his career. Jones would lose his next two fights, first to Glen Johnson then to Tarver in their rubber match before recently reviving his career with solid wins over Prince Badi Ajamu and previously undefeated Anthony Hanshaw..
Felix “Tito” Trinidad thrilled fans for years with his aggressive style, heavy hands and his ability to get off the canvas en route to thrilling wins. Over a four fight span he defeated three outstanding unbeaten fighters by the names of Oscar De La Hoya, David Reid and Fernando Vargas. Additionally he owns victories over Hector Camacho, Oba Carr and Pernell Whitaker. In short Trinidad was a one man wrecking crew, if you were undefeated and wished to remain so you wanted to stay the hell away from Tito. Just when Trinidad’s stock couldn’t get any higher he ran into “The Executioner” Bernard Hopkins. Hopkins stunned Trinidad stopping the then WBA middleweight title holder by 12th round TKO. Trinidad announced he would retire following the defeat, a retirement that lasted all of eight months or so before he returned to TKO Hacine Cherifi. More than two years passed before Tito laced them up again to face Ricardo Mayorga. Trinidad took care of business, disposing of Mayorga by 8th round TKO, took a seven month layoff then got dominated by Winky Wright. Once again Tito “retired”.
All signs point to a Roy Jones triumph. There are just too many strikes against Trinidad for him to be victorious. Tito hasn’t been in the ring since Winky boxed circles around him and Jones is bigger, stronger and equally, if not more, skilled than Wright. Trinidad has never fought above 160 lbs while Jones has been fighting at 160 lbs and above since 1991. Finally, Jones has fought three times since Tito last stepped between the ropes.
While a TKO for Jones would not surprise me in the least I’m going to say Roy Jones Jr. by wins by Unanimous Decision in a fight that isn’t even close. If he fails to stop Trinidad, Jones will completely dominate him with superior hand speed and exceptional footwork.