Felix "Tito" Trinidad and Roy Jones Jr., two of the era's greatest fighters, were on a collision course to meet in 2001. But Trinidad ran into Bernard Hopkins and was knocked out.
Up in smoke went one of the boxing's potential megafights.
Fast forward to Monday, when promoter Don King announced plans to match the future Hall of Famers in January at a venue to be determined, most likely New York's Madison Square Garden. TV details were also undetermined, but the fight will be on pay-per-view.
"It's the people's championship," promoter Don King called it, flanked by both fighters at his South Florida headquarters.
"It's two titans, two legendary fighters coming together to fight," King said. "This is what the public has waited for for a long time, and now they're going to have it. So, Tito is saying in the words of the inimitable and incomparable Cyrano de Bergerac, 'Don't bring me no mortal men, bring me giants.' And a giant is coming in Roy Jones Jr., one of the legends of our time, one of the greatest fighters in the world. So you got two of the greatest fighters in the world meeting each other."
With King working feverishly behind the scenes to convince Trinidad, 34, to continue his career, the Puerto Rican icon announced last month that he would come out of a second retirement.
His target was Jones, 38, the former four-division champion and pound-for-pound king, and Monday Trinidad signed the contract at King's office.
It was unclear if Jones had signed. Also unclear was the weight for the fight. Jones is a light heavyweight and Trinidad's last fight was at middleweight. Trinidad probably will move up from 160 pounds to Jones' 175-pound weight division.
"This is going to be one of the most thrilling events we've seen in boxing in many, many decades," King said. "This is about pleasing the people."
Jones (51-4, 38 KOs) has won two fights in a row since his fast fall from grace in 2004 and 2005, when he lost three in a row, including back-to-back brutal knockouts to Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson. After a year off, Jones, 38, returned to outpoint Badi Ajamu in July 2006. Last month, he outpointed Anthony Hanshaw with rumors of a possible showdown with Trinidad swirling during the promotion.
Trinidad, 34, a former three-division champion, will be coming out of his second retirement. He called it quits in 2002, but triumphantly returned to knock out Ricardo Mayorga in October 2004.
That victory set the stage for Trinidad to fight Winky Wright, who is far more skillful than Mayorga. Wright easily dominated Trinidad (42-2, 35 KOs) en route to a virtual shutout decision win in May 2005, which sent Trinidad back into retirement.
On Monday, Trinidad was certainly out of retirement mode.
"I'm waiting to knock you out, OK baby," Trinidad told Jones.
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Tito v. Roy Jones in Jan.
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Originally Posted by goldengoat
