Felix Trinidad Leaving His Retirement Castle To Face Recently Unretired Roy Jones, Jr.

Yesterday, everyone's favorite boxing promoter with the finger-in-the-power-socket inspired hairdo(curiously absent in the following clip) announced that Felix Trinidad was coming out of retirement to face Roy Jones Jr.



Remember when Jones was at the top of the boxing world? The point where he had amassed over 40 wins, and his lone "loss" was a DQ against Montell Griffin. And remember when Trinidad had an umblemished record, going an impressive 39-0?

Well, that was back in 2000. The year when this fight was first talked about. At the end of 2000, Jones held the light heavyweight title, and Trinidad was the reigning junior middleweight/super welterweight title holder. However, a deal could never be made, perhaps because of the 15 pound weight difference between classes, and it remained something that people just talked about wanting to see.

The talk of a Jones vs Trinidad match continued into 2001, but went quiet when Trinidad was beaten by Bernard Hopkins. Since then, Jones has compiled a 6-3 record, but one of his greatest accomplishments, taking the WBA heavyweight title from John Ruiz, has been overshadowed by a TKO in the second round by Antonio Tarver and follow-up losses to Glencoffe Johnson and again Tarver. Trinidad has fought three times since that loss to Hopkins, going 2-1. His last fight was a loss to Winky Wright in 2005.

So now we're here in 2007, with the Trinidad vs Jones match tentatively scheduled for January 2008. Trinidad says that he's not planning on any type of "tune up" match before his fight, and while there had been some talk of Jones fighting in November, that's probably not going to happen now.

The old adage "better late than never" may prove to be true with this fight, and I truly hope that this turns out to be a great match. However, I think it shows exactly where boxing has gone over the past few years. Instead of getting excited about new talent, we're eagerly anticipating a match between two fighters that, seven years ago probably would have been incredible, but now has us hoping that it won't be a letdown with someone getting seriously injured. Oh well, I'll probably buy it on PPV because right now it's about the best that mainstream boxing is providing.