Monday, May 16, 2005 | 10:58 a.m.
A possible rematch between Winky Wright and Felix "Tito" Trinidad apparently won't happen in the wake of the announcement Sunday night in Puerto Rico that Trinidad's father and trainer, Felix Trinidad Sr., was retiring.
"If you are not here, I am not continuing in boxing," the fighter said before embracing his father and crying.
The emotional scene in San Juan came a day following Trinidad's loss to Winky Wright, a one-sided unanimous decision Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in front of a near-sellout crowd of 14,176. It was Trinidad's second fight, and first loss, since returning in October from a 29-month layoff caused by a "temporary retirement."
A rematch was looking iffy anyway after Wright, in the biggest fight of his career, used brilliant defense and a superb jab to thoroughly dismantle Trinidad in their middleweight showdown.
Trinidad did not appear at the postfight news conference. He sounded alternately resigned and defiant in brief interviews immediately after the fight.
"A fighter that beats me has to be one of the best in the world, and he's one of the best," Trinidad (42-2, 35 knockouts) said. "He has an uncomfortable style and he had a stiff jab."
Wright, a 33-year-old southpaw, landed his jab cleanly all night while using his gloves and quick moves to deflect a vast majority of Trinidad's punches.
Wright (49-3, 25 KOs) won by scores of 119-108 on the cards of judges Jerry Roth and Dave Moretti and by 120-107 on the card of Duane Ford.
Like Ford, the Sun scored it a stone-cold shutout for Wright, 120-107. (Trinidad was assessed a penalty point in the ninth round for low blows.)
"A good jab can hold anybody off," Wright said. "I knew Tito was trying to set me up with his big power shots. He does have a good hook. But I said I'd win every round, one by one, and I didn't deviate from that plan."
Wright's trainer Dan Birmingham agreed that his fighter executed the game plan flawlessly.
"I knew after the first round that (Trinidad is) easy to hit," Birmingham said. "He's a great puncher but he lacks defense. I told (Wright) to jab, work the body when you can, keep turning him and go back to the jab."
The CompuBox punch statistics were startlingly in favor of Wright. Trinidad connected on 58 of 557 punches overall (10 percent), 15 of 327 jabs (5 percent) and 43 of 230 power punches (19 percent). The number of Trinidad's total punches was in single digits in every round.
It was a dramatic turnaround from Trinidad's comeback fight against Ricardo Mayorga, in which he landed 66 percent of his power punches on the way to an eighth-round technical knockout.
Wright connected on 77 of 168 power punches (46 percent) against Trinidad.
"It was a complete victory," Wright said. "I hit him with some great shots. I hit him in the face a lot. ...
"He tried to give me movement, but he needed to be set for his power base. When he did (try to get set) I hit him with my shots. ... I was just trying to pace myself. I was hitting him with my jab in the nose, and I wanted to keep busting up his nose."
The contract for the fight included a rematch clause that kicked in when Wright won, and a second bout -- if it takes place -- would likely be more lucrative for Wright, who earned about $5 million for Saturday's victory while Trinidad was paid $10 million.
His dominating performance, however, left Wright with a job requiring a heroic effort in salesmanship: persuading fans to demand an encore.
Wright did take a stab at it late Saturday night.
"Next time, he'll be better prepared," Wright, who entered the ring a plus-160 underdog, said. "He won't underestimate me. ... The next fight is going to be harder because he's going to go back home and practice. ...
"This was only his second fight back. Now he sees that he has to go back to basics. The next fight is going to be tougher."
Fortunately for Wright, and for boxing, there is another attractive matchup to be made in the middleweight division even if Trinidad follows his father into retirement. Asked if he would like to fight the winner of the scheduled July 16 bout between undisputed champion Bernard Hopkins and up-and-comer Jermain Taylor, Wright said, "Hell, yeah."
"If they want to fight me, that's cool," Wright said of Hopkins and Taylor. "But I signed to fight Tito first, and I'm a man of my word."
If Trinidad goes through with this retirement, it will mark the end of an illustrious career in which he won world championships in three weight classes and became a national hero to his fellow Puerto Ricans.
On Saturday, however, Wright clearly got the best of him.
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