Is Trinidad the Best That Hopkins Can Come Up With?

By Boxing News - 04/24/2009 - Comments

hopkins66649By Dave Lahr: I don’t know what Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1, 32 KOs) is thinking by looking at fighting a rematch with 36-year-old Felix Trinidad (42-3, 35 KOs). Hopkins is supposedly kicking around the idea of fighting Trinidad in November for what, I have no idea. This has got to be one of the worst ideas I think I’ve seen come from a fighter in some time. It reminds me a lot of Joe Calzaghe and his last fight of his career against Roy Jones Jr. I don’t mind a fighter getting a free payday, but when it comes at the expense of boxing fans in terms of a competitive fight, then it bothers me.

Believe me, Trinidad vs. Hopkins will be an even worse mismatch than it was the first time around eight years ago in 2001. In that fight, Hopkins completely dominated Trinidad for 12 rounds and knocked him out in the 12th. I could see Hopkins fighting a rematch with Trinidad if their previous fight was competitive or interesting.

However, it wasn’t an appealing fight due to the one-sided nature of the bout. It was even worse before the fight due to Hopkins throwing down the Puerto Rican flag in front of Trinidad. The fight didn’t need that kind of gamesmanship from Hopkins in order to sell tickets, because it was already going to be a blockbuster given that Trinidad was unbeaten and Hopkins has been a middleweight champion for 10 years.

However, even then, Trinidad was showing signs of slipping as a fighter. Trinidad, a slender welterweight, had no business fighting a middleweight like Hopkins and looked more like a fat welterweight than anything approaching an actual middleweight.

Since that fight, Trinidad has rarely fought, losing to Winky Wright and Roy Jones Jr. in his last two bouts. For a fight with Hopkins to be even mildly interesting for boxing fans, Trinidad would have to come back, take off some of the blubber, and beat two or three opponents to show that he still has anything left.

To be sure, Trinidad looked totally shot against Wright and Jones, so I can’t imagine he’s improved since then. Trinidad obviously won’t be fighting any bouts prior to fighting Hopkins if the fight does come off.

This means that Trinidad will almost certainly get beaten up by Hopkins. I like Trinidad as fighter and it’s sad to see him coming back, fighting someone out of his weight class like Hopkins and almost certainly going to lose the fight. I guess he can use the money, it’s not the same Trinidad. At this point, Trinidad is only a shadow of what he once was as a fighter and it’s not interesting to see him still fighting against anyone.

As for Hopkins, I realize he’s 44, but he can still fight well enough to be competitive against good fighters in the light heavyweight division. I doubt he could beat a fighter as good as Chad Dawson, but he should at least give it a try. There’s really no one else out there for him unless Hopkins wants to go after Mikkel Kessler, Lucian Bute or Jermain Taylor.

I think Taylor would be open for a fight with Hopkins, but I doubt Bute or Kessler would. Any one of those fights would be much better than fighting Trinidad, and would leave Hopkins with more respect from the fans because he’s seeking competitive fights rather than mismatches.



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