Cotto-Margarito: Trinidad Would Have Never Taken a Knee

By Boxing News - 08/11/2008 - Comments

cotto5645764.jpgBy Manuel Perez: Felix Trinidad (42-3, 35 KOs) has always been one of my favorite fighters, a warrior that never gave an inch, even in losses to Winky Wright, Roy Jones Jr. and Bernard Hopkins. After seeing Miguel Cotto (32-1, 26 KOs) twice take a knee against Antonio Margarito in their recent fight on July 26th, I could only imagine would Trinidad must have been thinking when he saw it. Believe me, Trinidad would have never taken a knee. He might have lost to a fighter as fierce and determined as Margarito, although I’m not so certain that would happen, but I can’t see him ever taking a knee once, let alone twice like Cotto did.

Trinidad in his prime would have rather gone down swinging rather than to yield the white flag of surrender and submit by taking a knee. I know of course that people will say that Cotto didn’t actually quit, that his trainer waived towel signaling for the fight to be stopped, but taking a knee two times is as close as you can get to surrendering in battle. Trinidad fought his heart out in every fight, winning some and losing some, but with him you always felt that he would go down swinging and that he wouldn’t just give up when things got rough in the ring. If it had been Trinidad in the ring with Margarito, he would have fought until the very last ounce of his energy was gone, and made Margarito take him out the old fashion way – with his fists. Perhaps this is the new generation of boxers or something, because I don’t understand it myself.

Fighters like Trinidad Wilfredo Gomez, they were almost guaranteed to fight until the end, whether that be them being knocked out or their opponent. One thing was clear, they would never take a knee in a fight, because that just wasn’t their style. I don’t where the trend for taking a knee started, but seems like it’s getting more common of late, rubbing off on fighters that you wouldn’t normally think would do it. I don’t what it is about it, but somehow it looks less than manly, more like something a fighter lacking in courage would do.

Trinidad, for all his defects as a fighter, he was never lacking in courage and never tried to take the easy way out. He also never ducked an opponent. Heck, he’d go out of his way to fight the toughest opponent he could get. Case in point, him moving up to the middleweight division to fight Bernard Hopkins. I would also include Hopkins as a fighter that I can’t see ever taking a knee in a fight, although he does go down when hit low. Trinidad was just seemed to live by a credo of wanting to fight as hard as he could, and if he had to lose, you can bet it wouldn’t be because he was taking a knee and signaling that he didn’t want to take anymore punishment.

I think that once a fighter starts taking a knee, it becomes easier the next time they get in trouble to take a knee again, so that they can avoid a tough situation. Sometimes you just got to face your problems head on, and take what’s coming to you whether you like it or not. I think that’s something that Trinidad exemplified in his brilliant boxing career. I just hope that maybe a little bit of Trinidad can rub off on Cotto, because he needs recapture that never say quit attitude that Trinidad used to show in the ring.



Comments are closed.