Posted on
1/18/2008 2:34:24 PM
Boxing Betting – Jones vs. Trinidad: Who’s Lost Less?
By Charles Jay
Two of the better fighters we've seen in boxing over the last 15 years will tangle on Saturday night in New York's Madison Square Garden as Roy Jones, a former middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight champion, locks horns with Felix Trinidad, who has held titles in the welterweight, junior middleweight and middleweight divisions.
The fight is a non-title affair and is being fought at a weight limit of 170 pounds.
BetUS boxing betting odds:
Light Heavyweights
January 19 -- New York City
ROY JONES, JR. -350
FELIX TRINIDAD +280
UNDER 11.5 ROUNDS -155
OVER 11.5 ROUNDS +115
For betting purposes, let's size up the contestants:
JONES (51-4, 38 KO's), the -350 favorite in the BetUS boxing betting odds, was once the consensus #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and was so dominant over the light heavyweights that he ventured into the heavyweight class, easily beating John Ruiz for the WBA title in March of 2003. Many thought at that time that Jones might go down as one of the all-time greats.
What happened was that Jones went down, period.
He was knocked out in two rounds by Antonio Tarver in May of '04, then knocked out again, this time by Glen Johnson, four months later. After an attempt to win the 175-lb. crown back from Tarver failed, Jones was inactive until July of 2006, when he scored a decision over Prince Badi Ajamu before a sparse crowd in Boise, Idaho. His last fight was a twelve-round decision over previously unbeaten Anthony Hanshaw on July 14 of last year. All told, Jones has fought twice in the last year and a half.
TRINIDAD (42-2, 35 KO's), the +280 underdog at BetUS, hasn't fought in a period of 32 months, since he was severely outclassed by Winky Wright in May of 2005. Trinidad, who put the first loss on Oscar De La Hoya's record in September 1999 and blasted out Ricardo Mayorga in a "comeback" fight in October of '04, has fought only twice in the last 68 months (that's five years and eight months, for those of you who grew up on calculators).
We don't want to do a retrospective of the two careers, because it would take too long. So in analyzing the fight, one must respect that Jones has been at least a little bit active. In fact, he's never really been "retired." Jones doesn't have nearly the speed he once had, but he has SOME speed nonetheless, which will be of some use to him, along with some elusiveness and a measure of ring savvy that he probably has never been given credit for. It bears mentioning, however, that if I had a proprietary interest in Roy's career, I would have been very worried about his third fight with Tarver, in which Jones actually had an opportunity to take an exhausted Tarver out and just couldn't pull the trigger.
And talk about pulling the trigger, is that something Trinidad will be able to do after so much time off? I can not confess to being a big fan of Trinidad. Not that I did not consider him a good fighter, but I did not share the wild enthusiasm everyone had for him when he was in his “prime.” That’s because Felix has always been a methodical, often mechanical fighter who has had a tendency to stumble when the opponent makes him improvise. He is most at home when a guy is standing in front of him. Well, that didn't happen in his hotly-disputed decision over De La Hoya, and Oscar made him look silly at times. So did Bernard Hopkins, who made him look like an amateur. And Wright, who stood in front of him but was impossible to hit, made a mockery of him. Now Trinidad, after all this time off, is coming back at a weight that is ten pounds more than any weight class where he has ever registered a win.
When you can’t adapt when the opponent is throwing a few curve balls at you, you are not a great fighter. And as the legendary boxing muckraker Flash Gordon used to say, a shot great fighter should usually beat a shot good fighter.
Jones doesn’t have the great fastball, but he can still throw some junk pitches. So you just know that if anybody is going to stay off the beaten path and make Trinidad improvise, it is Jones. No, we're not sure he's got very much left. But Hanshaw, the last opponent, was not a pushover, so he's likely got enough to make life miserable for Trinidad on this night.
We're with Jones, the -350 favorite in the BetUS boxing betting odds.
JAY'S PLAY: JONES (-350) ***
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)
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(Charles Jay of TotalActionExtra.com is a former manager, matchmaker and color commentator in professional boxing. He currently pulls no punches in the BetUS Locker Room)