Now Trinidad Wants to Retire Mayorga

It has been two years, four months and 20 days since Felix Trinidad last fought, two years, four months and 20 days since he looked an opponent in the face with that disarming, boyish smile, then stalked his man across the ring and unleashed a flurry of punches that have rendered fighter after fighter senseless.

Tonight, Trinidad returns, emerging from retirement to face Ricardo Mayorga in a 160-pound bout at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

But which Trinidad will return, the man who blasted his way up the ladder from 138 pounds to the middleweight division, along the way beating three former Olympic gold medalists -- Pernell Whitaker, Oscar De La Hoya and David Reid? Or, the Trinidad who was thoroughly beaten and eventually stopped by Bernard Hopkins in the Garden ring in 2001?

For the old Trinidad, Mayorga’s swing-from-the-heels, defense-is-for-cowards style would have been an opportunity for target practice. But that was before Hopkins, before retirement, before Trinidad (41-1, 34 knockouts) slipped into a life of ease in his native Puerto Rico, figuring he was no longer in need of an arduous training schedule and a strict diet.

“I reached the outer edges of the frontier of 200 pounds,” Trinidad acknowledged.

But now, promoter Don King said, Trinidad, 31, is “a lean, mean, great fighting machine.”

And who could ever doubt Don King?

Trinidad came out of retirement saying, “I realized I missed all this action.”

There is rarely a shortage of action when Mayorga, 31, is around. As much a clown as a fighter, Mayorga has smoked a cigarette in the ring after a victory and munched on a snack while getting on the scales at a weigh-in.

But there were no laughs last month when he was arrested in his native Nicaragua on rape charges. Allowed to travel for the fight by a judge, Mayorga said, “I was set up and that’s all I’m going to say.”

Mayorga (27-4-1, 23) came to prominence with two victories over Vernon Forrest in 2003, but he has been disappointing since. But an absence of nearly 2 1/2 years by Trinidad hasn’t dimmed the memories of those who watched him dominate opponents before he ran into Hopkins. If Trinidad is indeed back in top shape, Mayorga might want to have that cigarette before the fight.

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THE FACTS

Felix Trinidad vs.

Ricardo Mayorga

Tonight at Madison Square Garden, New York, 12-round title bout for the WBA North American and North American Boxing Council middleweight titles. Card begins at 6 PDT, HBO pay-per view.