New York, NY (BoxingGurus.com) – Due to the two-week postponement and the circumstances surrounding the delay, I thought I would have a hard time getting fired up for the highly anticipated Hopkins/Trinidad bout. Well, when I walked into Madison Square Garden (MSG) around 5:30 PM on Saturday, I could already feel the excitement with Trinidad fans outside the Boxing Mecca supporting their hero. It didn’t take long until the hairs on my arms were standing up and my heartbeat started to quicken. I knew I was going to be witnessing a true classic “Superfight”.

In the pressroom before the fight, there were the usual big names of boxing journalists. There was Bert Sugar, Steve Kim, Dan Rafael, and a host of others there for one of the most highly anticipated Middleweight fights in almost 2 decades. After quickly grabbing a bite to eat (they do actually feed us), I headed to my seat ringside to check out a few undercard fights I wanted to see. There weren’t many fans there at this early juncture, but the ones who were, were true die-hard boxing fans and the also happened to be pro-Trinidad fans. See, there were like four Puerto Rican fighters on the card that night, so many came out early to support their lesser-known countrymen. When I walked out into the arena from the pressroom, the first thing that I noticed was a guy (who saw I had a press credential) trying to get my attention. He asked if we had any beer in the pressroom that I could hook him up with. See, the Garden was not selling beer that night to its patrons as a precautionary step to try and prevent any problems with the diehard fans of both Trinidad and Hopkins.

When I finally made it to my seat, I got there just in time to see the WBA Super Middleweight Championship fight. Surprisingly, the fight was one of the earlier fights on the card and many fans weren’t there to see Byron Mitchell defend his title in a rematch against Manny Siaca (Puerto Rican). I had heard good things about Mitchell and some people had mentioned that if Trinidad won tonight, he would first fight Mitchell at 168 to get a belt and get accustomed to Super Middleweight power. Well, Mitchell barely held up his end of the bargain as he snuck out a close, but deserved, decision to retain his title. And as we all now know, Trinidad did not hold up his end of the bargain, making that fight moot in the grand scheme of things. Mitchell did not impress me and he seemed unspectacular going through the motions.

The only other fight on the undercard I wanted to see was the legendary Ricardo Lopez go for his 50th win and remain undefeated after 51 fights. He looked even more impressive in person than he did on TV (I have never seen him fight in person before). He easily picked apart and then took out a very legit #1 contender in Zolani Petelo. Petelo just recently vacated his IBF Strawweight title to move up to Junior Flyweight, so this is basically another champion Lopez fought. But it seemed not to faze Lopez. He is like a machine out there, but one with style and grace. He is like an artist the way he throws his punches. The destruction took 8 rounds before Petelo got KO’d.

Now the anticipation really started to rise. Hopkins/Trinidad was next!! But there was a very long delay (later to find out there was a problem with the tape job on Trinidad’s hands), which took away some excitement. Then came the much anticipated and highly controversial national anthem singing. Were the Puerto Rican fans going to boo (for whatever reason) like they did last time at MSG? Thankfully they did not and all the pre fight announcements went without a hitch. And I want to point out right now, that there was not one disrespectful fan in the house that I saw all night, no matter who they were rooting for. And that was a great thing to see considering the heated press conferences that took place leading up to this fight.

The fight concluded with a dramatic KO.   (AP)

Hopkins came to the ring first, followed by Trinidad. Then in a matter of no time, the fight got started. Hopkins basically dominated the fight from the opening bell. I only gave Trinidad the 3rd and 6th rounds, but they were both fairly close. Hopkins was in control throughout the fight and Trinidad just could not get off his punches with consistency because of Hopkins very slick defense and pressuring offense. Hopkins wore down Trinidad and ultimately took him out in the 12th round with a nasty right hook that sent Trinidad to the canvas. Trinidad did beat the count, but he was clearly out on his feet and Papa Trinidad stepped into the ring to ask the referee to stop the fight, which referee Steve Smoger did. The crowd was hushed after the first round, never really having a chance to get too excited because of the lack of punches thrown by Trinidad.

In the pressroom after the domination, the talk was how we underestimated Hopkins skills and how he psyched out Trinidad. There is no need for a rematch as this fight was totally one sided and I don’t see how Trinidad could do anything different to make the fight more competitive.

Now, this all leads us up to where is Hopkins now in the whole scheme of Pound-for-Pound in the world today. Hopkins has to move up dramatically and must be considered a top 3 fighter. He just beat a fighter who was clearly a top 3 fighter and some actually considered Trinidad #1 P4P. I think this reinforces the fact of how good Roy Jones Jr. is as he has beaten Hopkins back in 1993 with a broken hand. I know it was many years ago, and Hopkins has gotten better since then, but Jones has also gotten better since then too. Also Hopkins has had only one big win in his entire career, so you can’t put a guy like that at #1. The same goes for Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Both of them have GREAT talent, but still have to do more to prove themselves and win more titles in more divisions. Remember Jones Jr. has won 5 titles in 3 different divisions. Hopkins has only won 3 titles in 1 division. At least he now has unified, but Mayweather has only won one title in one division and clearly needs to do more to be considered top fighter in the world. Mosley has won 2 titles in 2 divisions, but has never unified and his only big victory over Oscar De La Hoya should not be enough to make him #1. That leaves the man who I have said is the best fighter in the world for many years now as the only fair #1 P4P fighter in the world. Remember this is not a popularity contest, this is who is the most talented fighter and who has accomplished more and who would win if fighters would meet head-to-head. All those way to determine P4P points directly at one person, Roy Jones Jr.

A rematch between Hopkins/Jones Jr. is the best fight to make now for Hopkins. It would be a big payday and a chance to redeem his only loss since his first pro fight. Negotiations stalled earlier this year for a rematch, but now the public should demand this fight to happen, so the pressure will be on them to get this done. Let’s hope we can see this fight and finally see Roy Jones Jr. in another big fight.

Any comments or questions please email me: tscott@boxinggurus.com