Being at Madison Square in person was a thing to behold. Nineteen thousand plus fans screaming at the top of their lungs; in fact there was screaming, crying, yelling and fainting going on, and this was from the male fans, forget about the women. People were standing from the singing of the National Anthems until the final stoppage. This was truly like no fight atmosphere I’d seen before in the years that I’ve covered the sport.

Give Ricardo Mayorga all the credit in the world. He’s not a middleweight, but yet he got in there and stood toe to toe with one of the biggest punchers in boxing bar none, in his first fight at 160. I’m not going to say he fought a smart fight. I don’t think I can remember a man standing in there with Felix Trinidad and trying to take his punches. It was clear after Mayorga stuck his chin out for Tito to hit that he was out of his league, notice how after the second hook  landed Mayorga started to do a little dance. Yes, it is a lot easier to take a punch when you know what’s coming but man, the legs don’t lie.

I hope for Ricardo Mayorga’s sake that he does a couple of things: First is to make sure that he gets his $2.8 million dollars for this fight in his hand or bank account. We all know how Don King can do his fighters, so I really hope he gets the money and saves some of it. Second is go back down in weight if he is going to continue to box. Mayorga doesn’t belong at 160 pounds, he has a lot more power at 147 or 154 and the guys down there don’t punch like Tito. Third is to  take a little time off, learn how to box a little bit more.

The media and fans in this country fell in love with his bravado and willingness to say whatever was on his mind. Those people who are with you when you win could care less about you when you lose; you all know the saying “Success has 1,000 fathers, failure is an Orphan.”

Mayorga's wild skills were effective really for two fights, versus Andrew Lewis and the other versus  Vernon Forrest the first time aorund. Since then he lost to Cory Spinks in a decision and barely got by  Forrest the second time they fought. I also hope that he can stay out of trouble but that doesn’t seem likely, but there’s reason to hope.

The sad thing is I don’t think he’ll ever be the same fighter after this one. He took more punishment in this fight vs. Tito than Vargas did when he fought Trinidad back in December of 2000. Ricardo Mayorga's pride and ego may have just written him a check that his head can’t cash.

Now with the win I’m hearing all these people starting to overrate Felix Trinidad, telling me that the best fighter pound for pound in the sport is back.  Really, I didn’t know that Bernard Hopkins went anywhere, that was news to me. Give Felix Trinidad a break, he just came back and fought Ricardo Mayorga, a guy who was made to order for Felix Trinidad and don’t forget that. Don King knew that Mayorga had the balls or missing screws to stand in there and try to go toe to toe with Felix Trinidad. He also knew that and this is the big one or more important in King’s vision:  Mayorga can sell a fight like no one’s business. Yes, Tito is a huge draw, probably the biggest in the sport behind Oscar, but add a guy like Mayorga who will say and do anything to get under the other guy's skin and boom you’ve got a heck of a fight.  Do you think that Bernard Hopkins, Winky Wright and Oscar de la Hoya would stand in there and say “OK Tito, I don’t think you can hit that hard, I’m going to take your best punch?” Those guys would be on their toes, (Oscar would be for as long as he felt like he wasn’t hurting his face), moving and boxing.

Tito was able to do anything he wanted in the ring with Mayorga, he actually landed 63% of the punches that he threw and the thing that was most impressive for him was not his accuracy after coming back from a 29 month lay off, or his chin, because he did get hit clean a couple time, but his stamina, it was simply amazing. When you throw all those power shots it takes something out of you, but not for Felix Trinidad, he kept throwing hooks, uppercuts, body shots and when he had to, he boxed. In fact you can tell that while Trinidad was away he did a lot of boxing because he’s doing a lot more movement in his game.  Take that in stride because again, it was against Ricardo Mayorga, not Bernard Hopkins, Ronald Wright or Oscar de la Hoya.
 
All in all it was great to see a king return to what he loves to do and still be able to do it. The lay off for now has done him well, it’s clear he wasn’t just sitting on the beach and eating. He’s moving side to side very well and displayed a real nice jab and solid defense inside and of course he still has tremendous two-fisted power and can throw those straight punches.

The biggest difference for Felix Trinidad now is that he can really take a punch in this division. He’s been caught by Joppy, Hopkins and now Mayorga, and was able to take most of their punches pretty well -except for that uppercut he got tagged with by Hopkins at the end of the 10th round in their fight. I’d still like to see Trinidad take another fight before he hops in with the elite fighters of the division. Knowing Tito and his heart he won’t wait and will probably fight a top class fighter next.