From the Infighting Comes a Very Intriguing Matchup

Beyond the sound and the fury, despite the threats and dire warnings, past the bombast of Don King, the negativity of Bob Arum, the anger of Dan Goossen and the denials of Lou DiBella, there will actually be a fight tonight at Caesars Palace.

An attractive fight, an intriguing fight and, potentially, a very good fight.

Perhaps not as good as the infighting that preceded it, but then, what could be?

In one corner will be David Reid, defending his World Boxing Assn. super-welterweight title (14-0, seven knockouts) and trying to show that, only four years beyond the Olympics, he is ready to be counted among the best fighters in the world.

In the other corner will be challenger Felix Trinidad (36-0, 30 knockouts), trying to show that he is ready to step up from 147 pounds, at which weight he still holds two titles, to 154 pounds.

Trinidad is coming off his greatest triumph, a decision over Oscar De La Hoya last September that enabled Trinidad to add De La Hoya’s World Boxing Council welterweight crown to his own International Boxing Federation title.

Reid won his WBA crown in his 12th fight, a decision over Laurent Bououani, and has successfully defended that title twice, against Kevin Kelly and Keith Mullings. But without a knockout in his last four fights and with a string of adequate but not spectacular performances, Reid has yet to equal the high point of his career, a stunning final-round knockout of Cuban Alfredo Duvergel that made Reid America’s only gold-medal boxer at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

“This is the kind of fight that will make you a man or make you a boy,” said the 26-year-old Reid. “I am in between right now. But this will be the turning point of my career. This will make me a man.”

Countered Trinidad, “I don’t expect him to run. But at some time in the fight, he will have to run.”

It will be Trinidad’s power against Reid’s speed.

Trinidad’s experience against Reid’s enthusiasm.

Trinidad’s hope of getting enough leverage to resurrect his negotiations for a De La Hoya rematch and a $20-million payday against Reid’s hopes of getting in on the really big money.

Two fighters, a total of 50 bouts and not a defeat between them.

Who wouldn’t want to see this fight happen? Several people, as it turned out.

The bout was put together in a matter of hours in November, unheard of in this boxing age of lawyers, accountants and computerized revenue projections.

Stymied in his efforts to set up a rematch between his fighter, Trinidad, and Arum’s fighter, De La Hoya, King called Goossen, Reid’s promoter, and a deal was announced the next day. Trinidad would get $3.5 million, Reid $1.625 million for a bout that would be held at Caesars Palace and shown on the Showtime pay-per-view network March 4.

There were only a couple of problems:

* Showtime officials knew nothing about the fight.

* Caesars has no arena.

Details, details.

Showtime quickly got on board, but that prompted an outburst at HBO, where DiBella, a vice president, reminded everybody that his network had a right to bid on a Reid fight.

Goossen sued HBO and the network backed off.

Caesars resurrected its old fight operation, building a 10,000-seat arena at the rear of the property to stage its first championship fight since 1997.

But a bigger problem soon surfaced. WBC President Jose Sulaiman threatened to take away Trinidad’s title if he moved up. That would lessen his leverage in the De La Hoya negotiations.

So Trinidad-Reid was put on hold. Arum, never missing a beat, stepped in and grabbed the March 4 date for a fight card to be held at Mandalay Bay down the Vegas strip.

Finally, Sulaiman agreed to let Trinidad delay a decision on returning to 147 pounds.

The bout was back on but had to be moved to March 3.

Despite predictions by Arum that bad weather could kill the fight and that the public wouldn’t pay to see it anyway, all systems are go. Las Vegas has been enjoying an early spring and more than 7,000 seats have been sold.

The public knows a good fight when it sees one. It was just hard to see this one through all the smoke.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Fight Facts

DAVID REID (14-0, 7 KOs) vs.

FELIX TRINIDAD (36-0, 30 KOs)

* At stake: WBA super-welterweight title.

* When: Tonight, 6.

* Where: Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.

* TV: Pay-per-view.

*

Tale of the Tape

*--*

TRINIDAD REID 153 Weight 153 5-10 Height 5-10 74 Reach 72 39 1/2 Chest (normal) 38 1/2 42 1/2 Chest (expanded) 40 1/2 14 1/2 Biceps 15 11 1/2 Forearm 13 32. Waist 30 1/2 21 1/2 Thigh 20 1/2 15 1/2 Calf 15 16. Neck 15 1/2 6 1/4 Wrist 6 3/4 11 3/4 Fist 11

*--*