In an outcome that surprised few, Roy Jones Jr. (52-4, 38 KOs) defeated Felix Trinidad (42-3, 35 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, in New York. Trinidad, 35, was taking the fight after a two and half year layoff, without any kind of a tune-up bout before hand. However, Trinidad looked mostly good in the first six rounds of the fight, out-working and out-landing the 39 year-old Jones, who looked badly over-the-hill.

Trinidad dominated each of the first six rounds with a good body attack, ripping hooks to Jones’ midsection and head. As usual, Roy would throw an occasional pot shot and pose a lot in between. However, he wasn’t able to keep up with the pace that Trinidad was setting for him in the early going. Quite frequently, Jones would retreat to the ropes and play the rope-a-dope routine, covering up and letting Trinidad tag him. The final judges’ scores were 117-109, 116-110 and 116-110, awarding the decision to Jones.

Although Jones made it appear that it was something he was doing to set up Trinidad for a counter-punch, it appeared to me that Jones’s legs were shot and he wanted to avoid having to work hard in the center of the ring. Jones did a lot of taunting, for example, wiggling his head and using his chicken stance to try and get Trinidad to come at him.

However, when Trinidad did come close, Jones wasn’t doing much other than absorbing shot. In the 7th round, however, Jones caught Trinidad with a right hand as he was coming in, sending him to the canvas. Trinidad wasn’t hurt, though, as he had been hit with a shot he didn’t see. For the remainder of the round, Trinidad continued to out-work Jones.

In rounds eight and nine, Trinidad continued to do most of the fighting, landing some powerful right hands to the head and body of Jones. For his part, Jones began to let his hands go more, although they were still mostly pot shots. Trinidad appeared to win both the eighth and ninth rounds with his superior work rate.

In the 10th round, Jones again dropped Trinidad at the end of the round, this time with a left-right combination. Before the knockdown, Jones was in the process of losing yet another round to Trinidad, and was taking punishment from him. The knockdown seemed to fire up Jones, who with the crowd behind him, finally started letting his hands go with regularity. Trinidad made both the 11th and 12th rounds close, with his excellent body attack and head shots, but it was Jones who landed the more frequent and telling shots.

Overall, the fight was close, but taking away the knockdowns, I had Jones losing the fight. In large part, he looked little better than he has in recent years, in losing efforts to Glen Johnson and Antonio Tarver. I suppose that Jones will now take this win and use it as justification for a bout with super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe. However, based on how Jones looked against Trinidad on Saturday, I hope this fight never materializes, because Jones would badly lose to Calzahge.