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| | Wednesday, 3 July, 2002, 03:35 GMT 04:35 UK Trinidad quits the ring Trinidad lost just one fight in his career Former world middleweight champion Felix Trinidad is to retire from professional boxing, his lawyer has announced. The 29-year-old made the decision "after carefully evaluating all present factors and listening to the recommendation of his father, manager and trainer," Nicolas Medina said. Trinidad's father, Trinidad Rodriguez, who also serves as his son's trainer and manager, said: "Tito has finished his career healthy, with a brilliant record. "And thanks to God with an economic future that guarantees peace for him and his family for the rest of his life."
Rodriguez said he and Trinidad made the decision on Tuesday after speaking to promoter Don King. King informed them that there was little chance of a rematch with Bernard Hopkins, who inflicted Trinidad's only professional loss. Trinidad, who will go down as one of the greatest fighters of his era, had wanted to fight again with Hopkins, to whom he lost his middleweight title last year. Oscar de la Hoya, who Trinidad beat in a previous fight, also turned down the chance of another bout. Medina said: "The only fights remaining would not add anything to his career, but would cause great risk to his health." That is likely to be a reference to a fight with light-heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr, regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, who Trinidad has never faced. Trinidad, from Puerto Rico, has been one of the biggest names in boxing for the last 10 years. He has had a successful career of multi-million dollar fights in three weight classes.
Trinidad won his last fight against France's Hacine Cherifi in May. Trinidad lost to Hopkins in the fight before that - the first loss of his career. Trinidad is retiring after winning 41 of his 42 fights, with 34 knockouts, and 21 title fights behind him. He started his professional career in 1990 at age 17 after a short amateur career of 57 fights. He won his first title, the IBF welterweight crown, by knocking out Maurice Blocker in the second round on 19 July 1993. Trinidad successfully defended that title 15 times. One of the most significant wins of Trinidad's career came in September 1999, when he beat the previously undefeated De la Hoya.
That added the WBC welterweight championship to his list of titles. A year later, Trinidad gained weight and won two fights as a light middleweight after he beat two promising Americans, David Reid and Fernando Vargas. Trinidad moved to the middleweight division in 2001 and beat American William Joppy, which paved the way for his unification fight against Hopkins. In that fight, on 29 September, Trinidad was knocked out in the 12th round. | |
See also:  03 Jul 02 | Photo Galleries 03 Jul 02 | Sports Talk 12 May 02 | Boxing 05 Mar 02 | Boxing 24 Jul 02 | Boxing 30 Sep 01 | Boxing 30 Sep 01 | Photo Galleries Top Boxing stories now: Links to more Boxing stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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