This Saturday Night’s All Wright for Fighting

On second thought, maybe Felix Trinidad should have stayed in retirement.

On Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, the man who was once arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world was on the receiving end of a dominating, devastating pounding at the solid, steady hands of Winky Wright, who easily won their middleweight showdown.

So dominating was Wright’s performance in front of the announced crowd of 14,176, so unstoppable was his jab, so impregnable was his defense, so bold was his attack that Trinidad won a total of two rounds on the three judges’ scorecards. Judges Dave Moretti and Jerry Roth had Wright winning 119-108. In the eyes of the third judge, Duane Ford, Wright threw a shutout.

The numbers tell the same one-sided story. Wright landed 262 punches (a 35% success rate) to 58 (10%) for Trinidad, who didn’t reach double figures in punches landed in any round. In the jab category, the domination was even more evident. Wright landed 185 jabs (31%) to Trinidad’s 15 (5%).

“The fighter who beats me in the ring has to be one of the best in the world,” said Trinidad, “and Wright is one of the best.”

Wright, 33, has spent nearly 16 years as a professional fighter hoping to hear those words, has fought all over this country and from Europe to Africa to gain such respect, has endured rejection after rejection when one big-name opponent after another passed on the opportunity to step into the ring with him.

Saturday night, Trinidad painfully learned the reason for all those rejections.

“I’ve had to keep proving myself over and over again,” Wright said. “[Tonight] was a complete victory.”

That it was.

Rarely at this elite level does a fight go the distance without some shift in momentum, some change in strategy. But this one did. From the opening bell, Wright took his familiar southpaw stance, gloves at the sides of his head, face buried beneath, eyes peering out at his target and fired his patented jab.

Like the piston on a smooth-running machine, Wright (49-3, 25 knockouts) whipped his stiff right arm into Trinidad’s face, pounding his nose, peppering his eyes, causing Trinidad’s head to lurch back, sweat flying off.

And, at just the right moment, when Trinidad (42-2, 35) would back up on his heels, Wright followed up with his left hand, scoring at will on occasion.

And neither Trinidad, nor his father-trainer, Felix Trinidad Sr., had an answer. The younger Trinidad had bragged before the fight that he had fought many southpaws before, that he had fought men with much more power, that he was facing a man who was stepping into unfamiliar and dangerous territory in moving up from 154 pounds to 160.

But once the fight began, all that talk faded away, as did Trinidad’s trademark power. He seemed confused from the start, uncertain how to move his feet against the southpaw, puzzled over how to best attack .

“He has an uncomfortable style,” said Trinidad, “and a stiff jab.”

Said promoter Don King, “He was discombobulated.”

Said Wright, “That was the game plan and I executed it perfectly. I hit him with some great shots. I think he underestimated me a little bit because of the weight gain and my moving up in class.”

In Trinidad’s first loss, he was TKO’d by Bernard Hopkins in 2001. In that fight, Hopkins took advantage of his superior size. Trinidad took off 20 months, then returned to defeat Hacine Cherifi and Ricardo Mayorga.

Then came Saturday, when the deciding factor was not bigger size, but superior skill.

Even when Wright beat Shane Mosley twice last year, he didn’t look as flawless as he did Saturday night. And the perception then was that, in Mosley, he had beaten a fighter heading downhill.

There was no such perception Saturday. If anything, Mosley regained some prestige in comparison to Trinidad.

So what now?

This was an elimination fight for the World Boxing Council portion of Hopkins’ undisputed title. But will Hopkins, at age 40, really want to face a Winky Wright, who seems to be getting better with every jab?

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In the semi-main event, undisputed welterweight champion Zab Judah (34-2, 25) easily defended his title with a third-round TKO victory over Cosme Rivera (28-8-2, 20).

Rivera, an L.A. fighter, may have been dubbed the mandatory challenger by the International Boxing Federation, but he was clearly unqualified for the role. Judah put Rivera down twice in the first and once in the third before referee Joe Cortez ended the fight at the 2:11 mark of that round.

In another title fight, Will Grigsby (18-2-1, 7) regained the IBF 108-pound title by winning a unanimous decision over Victor Burgos (36-14-3, 21).