Quote Originally Posted by Puerto Rican Punch View Post
Quote Originally Posted by ElTerribleMorales View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Rican View Post

Dude, usually I agree with you, but how can you say Trinidad did more to establish himself at 154 than at 147? Tito only fought three times at 154 after moving up! Then later you say he was far from dominating at 154, but again, he only fought there three times, beat two champions, and didn't Tito knockdown Reid seven times? Vargas 4-5? And who did Quartey fight at 147 other than Oscar? I think you are giving Quartey too much credit. In terms of Oscar, he did not provide the blueprint to beat Trinidad. Hopkins did. Oscar was missing the power to stop Tito in his tracks. Hopkins and Wright had that power.
he was the clear cut best by the time he beat Vargas, because Wright was pretty much an unknown at that time, well maybe not unknown but he wasn't the force that he would later end up being at 154, aside from Carr, an old Whitaker, and Campas, what real capable fighter did he beat that was at his peak, DLH was a gift decision, again i'm not saying that Trinidad wasn't a force at 147, but he was far from dominant, and yea he dropped Reid a bunch of times, and yet still struggled in that fight, and De La Hoya gave the blueprint on how to beat Trinidad, Hopkins himself said that he studied that fight over and over, he dropped Vargas 5 times yet was only ahead by 3 points going into the final round before the final 3 kd's, he's an all time great, but he was never the most dominant fighter in the division, in fact there wasn't a dominant fighter in any of the divisions he fought in, except for 160, and that was Hopkins
Lets revisit the definition of not dominating fighter based on some Tito's highlights:

Welter weight champ from 1993 until 1999 when he decided moving to 154 after defeating De La Hoya to defeat an undefeated champ, former gold medalist (Reid), the reason why he did not fight Mosley or Forest. During his period at 147 he beat people like Campas (56-0), Carr (32-0), De La Hoya. With very few exeptions most of his opponents had good records, thus he fought the best of the division during his time. And we are not talking about heavy weights, there is quality in these divisions. We can argue that De La Hoya was a very close fight and perhaps De La Hoya could win (or could get KO) if he had more heart to fight and less mouth. To speak a little about gifts we can mention his "victory" over a Whitaker in a similar shape than the one that Tito clearly beat (don't want to mention other De La Hoya's gift such as Sturm).

From 1999 to 2001 fought De La Hoya (31-0), Reid (14-0), Thiam (33-1), Vargas (20-0), Joppy (32-1), Hopkins (39-2); 6 fight, 1 mandatory, 5 world champs and beat 4 of them, they had a combined record of 169 wins with only 4 losses. Not bad for a non-dominating fighter...
De La Hoya has never been one to really run his mouth and talk crap about his opponents, Trinidad did plenty of it and the person who tries to deny it, well i have plenty cut outs of his big fights in the past, not that most of it wasn't backed up but he talked plenty shit, no way in hell was DLH gonna get KO'd by Trinidad, if anything it would have been the other way around, Oscar/Tito wasn't a close fight, DLH won the first 9 straight, and there was no knockdowns, DLH beat Whitaker in a close fight, plenty pick that as a reasonable call, i had Oscar beating Whitaker 115-113, Sturm is the only really bad decision on his record, i had Sturm winning 115-113 or even 116-112, and that was already when DLH was out of his element at 160, do i need to remind you about what happened to Trinidad after the Joppy fight?
he got KO'd by B-Hop, beat a very weak Cherriffi (spelling?), retired, came back beat a Mayorga who had never fought above 147, then got schooled by Wright, then embarrassed he retired again, only to comeback and get schooled by an old merciful Jones, he could have KO'd Trinidad at any point after the 6th, again i'm not downplaying any of Trinidad's SUCCESS but he was never a Hopkins, Calzaghe, or Jones in ANY DIVISION he fought in