Trinidad Belts Reid Around

Memo to Oscar De La Hoya: Felix Trinidad is still out there and he still wants you.

But beware. He’s bigger and better than ever.

Fighting at 154 pounds for the first time, Trinidad smashed David Reid to the canvas four times Friday night, opened a large cut over Reid’s right eye and added yet another belt to his collection, capturing Reid’s World Boxing Assn. super-welterweight title by unanimous decision before a sellout crowd of 10,100 in an outdoor arena at Caesars Palace.

Judge Duane Ford scored the fight, 114-106, and fellow judges Jerry Roth and Stanley Christodoulou each had it 114-107 in a bout in which Trinidad lost two points for low blows and Reid a point as well.

Trinidad didn’t escape unscathed. He too went down, from a right hand in the third round.

But Trinidad has a history of going down early and coming back strong. And that was again the case Friday night. The blow seemed to focus the unbeaten Trinidad (37-0, 30 knockouts).

“The knockdown didn’t bother me,” he said. “If you don’t get me in the first few rounds, the fight is over.”

Reid, who entered the fight unbeaten at 14-0 with seven knockouts, seemed to grow more confident with the knockdown.

But that confidence faded as quickly as the opening Trinidad had given him. Trinidad began to score with the left hand, and in the seventh round, a left hook broke through Reid’s defense.

For an instant, he was frozen, the big smile that he had brought into the ring with him disappearing, not to be seen again. Reid stumbled, staggered and fell to the canvas.

He got up, but he wasn’t the same.

Suddenly, he looked like a fighter who had had only 14 pro fights, and Trinidad looked like the Puerto Rican legend he has become.

In the eighth round, Trinidad opened a cut over Reid’s right eye.

In the 11th round, it appeared the fight was over. A right uppercut put Reid down. He got up, but soon dropped his hands, seemingly conceding he was beaten. Just to make sure, Trinidad put Reid down with another right hand, then leaped onto the ropes, arms raised high in victory, acknowledging the cheers of his many fans in the crowd.

Not just yet, Felix.

Reid managed to stagger to his feet. Back to work went Trinidad, dropping Reid for a third time in the round. Reid staggered to his feet from that blow as well, but by that point, the only question was whether he could survive.

“He hit me with some good shots,” Reid said. “I have to be a gentleman and take the loss.

“Experience was a factor in the later rounds. I have no respect for the other fighter, but Trinidad was the better man tonight.”

So what now?

After the fight, Trinidad talked about moving up to 160 pounds and eventually taking on Roy Jones Jr. at 168 pounds.

But Don King, Trinidad’s promoter, has only one target: De La Hoya, who lost to Trinidad by decision last September.

Bob Arum, De La Hoya’s promoter, already has made a verbal agreement for his fighter to face Shane Mosley in June. But King publicly appealed to Arum Friday night to change his mind.

“We don’t really care about money,” King insisted. “We will fight him for nothing. Our negotiations were all down to a catch weight [between 147 pounds and 154]. Well, let’s catch a weight, whatever it is, and fight.

“Felix Trinidad will fight De La Hoya. I guarantee it.”

Said Trinidad: “I would love to fight Oscar De La Hoya, but he’s fighting Mosley. I don’t care if I ever fight Oscar again.”

On the undercard, WBA middleweight champion William Joppy, fighting a 10-round non-title bout when originally scheduled challenger Rito Rubalcava came down with tonsillitis, won a lackluster, boring fight with a unanimous decision over Fernando Zuniga of Ecuador to improve his record to 29-1-1 with 22 knockouts. Zuniga dropped to 18-3 with 14 knockouts.

In an eight-round women’s bout, fought at a considerably higher skill level than is normally exhibited by female boxers, Christy Martin (39-2-2, 30 knockouts) won a majority decision over Belinda Laracuente (17-4-1, nine knockouts) of Puerto Rico.

Said the 21-year-old Laracuente of Martin, 10 years her senior: “I beat up the old lady. I won six of the eight rounds.”