Norris and Trinidad Win Easily

Terry Norris and Felix Trinidad, two talented power punchers apparently heading toward a glamour matchup, hunted down then smashed their challengers on Saturday night’s undercard.

Norris, the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Council junior-middleweight champion, took some shots from Alex Rios, but retained his titles with a couple of huge flurries that caused referee Mills Lane to stop the bout at 2:08 of the fifth round.

Earlier, IBF welterweight champion Felix Trinidad started slowly, then cut up Ray Lovato on his way to a savage sixth-round stoppage.

Norris (44-6, 28 knockouts) winced a few times against Rios’ heavy attack of hooks, but put Rios (18-3) to his knee once in the third (not ruled a knockdown) and put him to the canvas in the fourth.

The fight ended when a sizzling overhand right by Norris sent Rios staggering backward, struggling to stay upright. Norris pounced to finish the bout, but Lane stopped it with Rios struggling against the ropes.

Trinidad, for his part, measured Ray Lovato in the early rounds, then started snapping shot after shot, eventually stopping Lovato at 1:57 of the sixth with a series of head shots.

In the fifth, Trinidad (30-0, 26 KOs) rocked Lovato backward with a heavy right hand, and the beating continued into the sixth, when referee Mitch Halpern stopped it.

“I thought it was stopped too soon,” said Lovato (21-2). “I thought I was winning.”

Trinidad was ahead on all three judges’ cards--by one, three and three points--when it was stopped.

In a women’s bout that kicked off the TV card, Christy Martin scored a fourth-round knockout with a devastating overhand right to Melinda Robinson’s chin.

Boxing Notes

Heavyweights Riddick Bowe and Andrew Golota will reprise their controversial and chaotic first match on a Dec. 14 card, probably in Atlantic City, N.J., according to promoter Dino Duva.

In their first bout, on July 11, a riot erupted at Madison Square Garden after Bowe was given a seventh-round disqualification victory for repeated Golota low blows and members of Bowe’s camp streamed into the ring to attack Golota, who was on the verge of knocking Bowe out several times in the last few rounds.

Bowe’s promoter, Rock Newman, was fined $250,000 and suspended for a year by the New York State Athletic Commission for inciting the incident, which resulted in several arrests and minor injuries.