Felix Trinidad- Beat 3 out of 4 Olympic Gold medalists!

[mikeeod]

Although the loss to Hopkins was hugely disappointing, I don't think it hurt his legacy at all. It was one of three losses on Trinidad's record, all to HOF'ers. Hopkins will go down in history as one of the greatest MW champions ever, and he was always a MW. Trinidad was coming up from WW and JMW. No shame in losing to an established champion at that weight. To your point of how he handled Carr easier than either DLH or Quartey, I would add that his showing against Hopkins, although a loss, was also a better showing than DLH against Hopkins... which was an ill-advised mismatch.

I'd also add that Trinidad's showing against Joppy was incredibly impressive, given that it was his first fight at MW against another legitimate, and noticeably bigger champion in Joppy.

I say it hurt Tito's legacy because it is the fight most fans remember when they think of him. That, or the Oscar fight, and both made him look one dimensional. Tito is like Kelly Pavilik in that both were very solid fighters early in their career and then fell in love with their punch and were beaten by Hop. Tito had a great jab, good movement, and solid defense at his best. That's NOT what most fans remember, unfortunately.

The Joppy win was great. Joppy was the undisputed #2 middleweight at the time and Tito destroyed him. Phenomenal showing. In my opinion, this fight is the reason I don't give credence/credibility to the argument that Tito wasn't a true middleweight. The only guy at 160 who beats Tito during that time is Hop, and size wasn't the reason, Hop was just better.

Boxing fans are kinda that way by nature (what have you done for me lately). They probably remember the Hopkins fight the most because at least Stateside, Trinidad was mostly an unknown quantity until he fought DLH. Whereas here in Puerto Rico, he was well known way before the DLH fight. So Stateside fans got to see DLH, Vargas, Joppy, then Hopkins. Not a huge sample size. You're absolutely correct about Felix's jab, movement, and defense early in his career. I would add a very underrated quickness. Where we might differ is in the Hopkins fight. I think Trinidad went into the fight expecting to blow Hopkins away like he had most other opponents leading up to the fight. But B-Hop used the perfect strategy for Felix that night. Any undefeated fighter who takes his first loss can probably go back and look at what caused the defeat, and maybe tweak something here and there. Trinidad never had that chance, so it's academic.

Yes, Hopkins' decision to not allow Trinidad to fight with illegal handwraps was the perfect strategy. It completely threw Trinidad off.

I know you are trolling but I just can't help myself. From what I recall, the hand wraps weren't illegal at all. I remember the issue being that Papa Trinidad was wrapping Tito's hands in a manner that was not allowed in New York (but allowed in other states like Nevada, Cali...etc.). This isn't a case of illegal activity like Margarito's plaster of Paris job, this was a little known/enforced rule that only a great trainer like Bouie Fisher would catch.