As I predicted in my previous post, Roy Jones, Jr. started slowly but ultimately handled Felix Tito Trinidad fairly easily. The fight ended up being a high-stakes sparring session, with Jones playing the lead. The only surprise was how Jones executed his game plan.
As he had done at many points of his career, Jones fired few punches in the early rounds. He seemed to simply be hoping that Trinidad would walk in recklessly and leave himself open for counter-punches. To my surprise, Tito was sharp early on, firing off powerful shots above the neck and below the belt – hitting anything that was available. Through the first three rounds of the fight, he was simply outworking Jones. Jones did have an early lead in the dance competition, as he wiggled and spun more than he threw punches.
However, by about round four a light bulb went off in Jones’ head. It’s as if he had a sudden revelation that: 1) "I’m faster than this guy," 2) "I’m stronger than this guy," and "by golly, I think I can take this sucker’s punch." From that point on, Jones was uncharacteristically aggressive (this was the biggest surprise), stalking and battering Tito around the ring. By round 11, it appeared as though both men were content to go the distance. Jones was closing out the show in typical, low-risk fashion, and Tito was in atypical survival mode.
I give the fight a C+. Jones did show that he may have some reserves left in the tank. Now a fight against the winner of the Joe Calzaghe and Bernard Hopkins light heavyweight title fight doesn’t seem as preposterous as I once believed. On second thought, let me not get carried away. I’ll get back to you on that one.
As far as Trinidad goes, he was competitive for a few rounds but had the body of a former skinny guy tonight. By former skinny guy, I am referring to that guy who looks thin in clothes but with his shirt off you see more loose ends than a woman’s bad hair day. But I digress. I am simply saying that if he’s serious about his latest comeback, he needs to take his training more seriously if he’s to have any chance of competing at a high level (which he did not do against Jones).
I will remember these titans, but it won’t be for this fight.
OK, I’m here for my helpful serving. Have at it Ja. GO BIG BLUE!!!
Don’t ever question my prediction skills! 🙂 I am 1-0 this year so far. Tito proved once again, that when he can’t overwhelm a fighter, he has no plan B. He’s still a legend in my book, but he’d be best served to sit it out from here on in.