Trinidad, Reid face risky business

Dean Juipe

Thursday, March 2, 2000 | 10:31 a.m.

The polite applause each man afforded the other belies the intensity they'll carry into the ring.

Felix Trinidad and David Reid may be agreeable in street clothes and at prefight press conferences, as they were Wednesday, yet each man recognizes the importance of their Friday fight at Caesars Palace.

Reid, 14-0 with seven knockouts and the World Boxing Association champion at 154 pounds, has never had a bigger fight.

Trinidad, 36-0 with 30 KOs, may have had a bigger fight -- defeating Oscar De La Hoya last September in Las Vegas -- but that's in his rear-view mirror as he moves up in weight to go after a different title after almost seven years of ruling boxing's welterweight division.

"He says he's coming to win and I know he means it," Trinidad said. "But I'm going to take his title with me when I leave here. No matter what I have to do, I'm going to win this fight.

"If it's by knockout, so much the better."

While fighters are occasionally reluctant to offer such predictions, each man is forecasting a knockout victory. Trinidad has wavered but apparently is going with three rounds, while Reid says he'll win within four.

Oddsmakers and bettors aren't so sure, as it's a minus 130 the fight goes its 12-round distance. It's even that it won't.

Overall, Trinidad is the betting favorite at minus 300, with Reid at plus 240. (Bettors, however, can get Reid to win by decision at a plus 400 or Reid to win by knockout at a plus 700, numbers that astute players may see as a glitch.)

Trinidad, 27, is receiving $4 million.

Reid, 26, gets $3 million.

"I'm a nice person and Felix seems like a nice person," Reid said. "But once we come to the fight that other stuff will get set aside. He may think I'll be an easy opponent or someone he can walk over, but he'll change that point of view once he sees what he's up against in the ring."

Reid, an Olympic gold medalist, has marched through his previous 14 opponents and put together three consecutive impressive decision victories over Laurent Boudouani, Kevin Kelly and Keith Mullings. He has, however, gone 52 straight rounds without a knockout.

"I know, I know," Reid said of his lack of recent knockouts. "That's one very big reason I want to win this fight by knockout. It's a winnable fight overall, and one I can win by knockout if I keep my discipline."

He puts no credence in the betting lines, and his trainer, Al Mitchell, marvels that "Trinidad isn't a bigger favorite" given his man's emergence from and out of the tough streets of Philadelphia.

"After all David has been through, 3-1 for Trinidad makes it seem like Trinidad is the underdog," Mitchell hypothesized.

The theme for this fight is "Undefeated Gladiators" but "Risky Business" could be more apropos. Reid runs the risk of having his still-young career derailed, while Trinidad is risking the big money that would go with a rematch with De La Hoya; a loss to Reid and the rematch with De La Hoya is devalued significantly. (That rematch, incidentally, may come later this year and De La Hoya is expected to fight Shane Mosley first, in June in Los Angeles. The official announcement of that fight could come as early as today, according to a spokesman for De La Hoya's promoter, Bob Arum.)

"You have to give the fighters credit," co-promoter Dan Goossen said of Reid and Trinidad, "because there are millions of dollars at stake here."

With his typically nonchalant style, Trinidad presents himself as the rightful favorite.

"Reid's a very good fighter," he said. "But there's a big difference in our experience. That's an advantage for me that he can't do anything to overcome."

Trinidad is 16-0 in world title fights, which Reid's detractors point out is more total fights than Reid has taken part in. This will also be an opportunity for Trinidad to complete a "gold-medalist hat trick," as he has already defeated two Olympic gold medalists in De La Hoya and Pernell Whitaker.

But Trinidad -- whose best career wins have come over Maurice Blocker, Hector Camacho, Yory Boy Campas and Oba Carr, as well as Whitaker and De La Hoya -- has also been knocked down five times in his pro career and now is moving up to face a bigger man who, in theory, will have a little something extra on his punches.

"Not just my punching power, but my speed is something Trinidad hasn't seen before," Reid said. "That's one of the reasons I think this is the perfect time to be fighting him."

Reid has been training in Denver for this fight, while Trinidad trained -- and sparred 158 rounds, according to his father -- in his native Puerto Rico.

Each man maintains he is physically fit for the fight and will come in at 154 pounds at today's weigh-in. Reid said his habitually droopy left eyelid will not be a factor, although there are those who think otherwise.

"Every tough fighter I face goes for the left eye," he said. "I'm quite sure he's going to, too. But if I really had a problem with it, someone would have exploited it already."

If opposing fighters have had any luck with Reid, it's in knocking him down as both Kelly and James Coker did in losing efforts.

"Knockdowns don't mean anything," Trinidad said. "Reid came back to win those fights (so) I'm not taking anything away from him."

His tone was gracious and his message was cordial. If there's any bad blood between the contestants, it has either yet to surface or is waiting for Friday's opening bell.