Newz Forum: BOXING: Trinidad is Back! KO's Mayorga in the 8th Round

Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Felix "Tito" Trinidad's return to the ring was a knockout success.Trinidad pummeled Ricardo Mayorga in the eighth round, knocking him down three times before the fight was stopped with 21 seconds to go in the round Saturday night.

In his first fight in more than two years, Trinidad simply overwhelmed the game Mayorga with a barrage of punches, including a left hook that finished the middleweight fight in front of a raucous Madison Square Garden crowd of 17,406.

Trinidad, 42-1 with 35 knockouts, lost the middleweight championship three years ago to Bernard Hopkins. After one more fight, he retired, unable to get a rematch with Hopkins.

Instead, Trinidad spent "the good life" in Puerto Rico, he said. But at 31, he is back and he showed against Mayorga that he is in his prime.

Mayorga never had been knocked down, but he was cut under the left eye in the fifth round, and he had to stop from a low blow to the right thigh in the sixth. Referee Steve Smoger allowed him nearly two minutes to recover with 40 seconds to go in the sixth, but Mayorga never was the same the rest of the way.

Mayorga, of Nicaragua, fell to 26-5-1. He knocked down Trinidad in the third and fought particularly well in the third and fourth rounds.

"I felt good about my performance, but my eye swelled up and I couldn't see some shots," Mayorga said.