At 154 Pounds, Trinidad Can Throw Weight Around

One swift and solid left hook.

That’s all it took.

With it, Olympic gold was tarnished, the legs of an unbeaten champion deserted him, sending him tumbling down the road to defeat, and all of boxing was shaken up.

The blow was delivered by Felix Trinidad in the seventh round of his fight last month against World Boxing Assn., 154-pound champion David Reid at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace.

Reid, after having taken command of that fight early, never recovered from Trinidad’s knockdown blow. Despite a courageous effort that allowed him to weather three more knockdowns, Reid, the only American boxer to win a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics, lost.

Not only was Trinidad the winner, but so was the 154-pound division.

Since he broke through to become the biggest non-heavyweight in the world, Oscar De La Hoya has hogged the spotlight. Whatever weight class he was in--from 130 pounds to 135 to 140 and now to 147--has been considered the class of boxing.

But perhaps no more. To be sure, De La Hoya still has center stage with his upcoming blockbuster 147-pound title match against Shane Mosley on June 17 at Staples Center. The fight, already only 2,000 seats short of a 20,000-seat sellout, will generate the largest live gate in California boxing history by more than tenfold. And the early prediction for pay-per-view is perhaps in excess of a million homes.

But even as De La Hoya prepares to rumble against Mosley, the boxing landscape has rumbled under De La Hoya’s feet.

Trinidad is no longer the little-known fighter from Puerto Rico, on the outside looking in. Even after Trinidad beat De La Hoya last September, De La Hoya and his promoter, Bob Arum, took the attitude that De La Hoya retained the upper hand in negotiations for a rematch because De La Hoya was still the bigger drawing card.

And they were right.

But Trinidad’s father, Felix Sr., his manager/trainer, held firm, turning down a chance for perhaps a $20-million rematch purse if it meant fighting on De La Hoya’s terms.

“They have a hard time understanding,” the senior Trinidad said through an interpreter, of Arum and De La Hoya, “that they are the ones who lost. They are not in a position to tell the terms.”

Instead, Trinidad settled for

$4 million to fight Reid and was ridiculed for it.

But no more.

By winning impressively, Trinidad became a bigger star and established himself in the hot division, a division that has not only Reid, who remains a viable figure despite the defeat, but also Fernando Vargas and Ike Quartey, who will face each other April 15 at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center.

If Vargas wins, he is expected to face Trinidad in a huge fight that would add still more fame and fortune to Trinidad.

Anyone who thinks a hard- punching but non-English-speaking fighter can’t become a draw obviously doesn’t remember Roberto Duran.

In his recent fights, Trinidad has had to struggle to remain unbeaten. Getting down to 147 pounds was increasingly difficult. Stepping up to the scales the day before his 1999 fight against Pernell Whitaker, Trinidad was three pounds overweight. That forced him to put on three pairs of sweats and run furiously around the block at New York’s Madison Square Garden to make the weight.

He was able to do so, but such problems left Trinidad weaker and less effective. A natural at 154 pounds, Trinidad looked stronger and deadlier than ever against Reid.

If De La Hoya fails to beat Mosley in June, he will have suffered two losses in three fights, a big blow to his reputation. But even if De La Hoya wins, which he should do with his superior size and reach, he will eventually have to step up to 154 pounds because that’s where the action is.

And when he does, he will find a bigger, better Trinidad, a formidable foe with punching and drawing power.

De La Hoya may yet regret he didn’t take the rematch now.

WHAT’S NEXT, A JOB AS A CUT MAN?

An on-line auction is currently underway on ebay.com. Being offered is air fare for two to Las Vegas, a two-night stay at Mandalay Bay hotel, tickets to the Vargas-Quartey fight and passes to a postfight party.

Pretty routine stuff?

Read on, it gets weird. Also being offered, by an organization named Athletes Direct, is a chance to “hang out with Ike in his dressing room before the fight,” and the opportunity to “be part of the entourage that surrounds Ike as he walks down the aisle and into the ring.”

The bidding, which ends Monday, was at $2,347 Friday night.

Why would Quartey want such a distraction before such an important fight for him? Why should still more people be allowed into a ring that is already bursting with unnecessary, camera-seeking nobodies?

Nobody ever doubted boxing people could be bought. But who knew the price could be so cheap.

QUICK JABS

There will be five fight cards in three days in L.A. on the weekend of the De La Hoya-Mosley match. On Thursday, June 15, Laila Ali, daughter of three-time heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, will fight a still-unnamed opponent at the Universal Amphitheatre. On Friday, there will be an ESPN card, on Saturday afternoon a show on ABC, Saturday night De La Hoya-Mosley and, on Sunday afternoon, another ABC card. Among those involved will be World Boxing Council lightweight titleholder Stevie Johnston, International Boxing Federation junior-lightweight champion Diego Corrales and International Boxing Assn. junior-welterweight champion Antonio Diaz. Among sites being discussed are a downtown theater, the Olympic Auditorium and the Sports Arena. . . . The much anticipated Erik Morales-Marco Antonio Barrera rematch may be held Jan. 20 at Staples Center.