Roy Jones Jr. said he would retire if he didn’t knock out Felix “Tito” Trinidad last night. He didn’t get the knock out, but he dropped the popular Puerto Rican twice en route to winning a unanimous decision before 12,162 at the Garden.
Jones proved at age 39 he still has plenty of hand speed and determination as he took control midway through the 12-round bout with stinging combinations that had Trinidad in constant retreat.
Trinidad, fighting for only the second time in almost six years, went down from a right hand in the seventh round and again in the 10th, but finished the bout on his feet as the two fighters embraced at the final bell.
All three judges had Jones an easy winner: 116-110, 117-109 and 116-110. The Post scored it 118-108.
“All my fans around the world thought I was done,” Jones (52-4, 38 KOs) said. “He took a lot of shots. I can’t believe he stayed in there with me for 12 rounds.”
Trinidad (42-3, 35 KOs) held his own early, scoring points by being the busier fighter. But he never landed the clean hard punch that would test Jones’ suspect chin.
“I take nothing away from Roy,” Trinidad said, “but if I could have avoided the knock downs I think I could have won the fight. Roy was very fast and strong. He threw great punches. I have no excuses. He demonstrated speed and took my body punches.”
Jones and Trinidad stood toe-to-toe early yesterday when Jones made the usual move of going to Trinidad’s hotel to get his consent to use Grant gloves. The contract called for Everlast gloves to be used and Trinidad showed no leniency. The bout was contested in Everlast gloves, which didn’t sit well with Jones.
“I wanted to wear the gloves to represent my fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE), the largest fraternity in the world,” Jones said before the fight.
He didn’t have his Grant gloves, but Jones entered the ring with a silver crown on his head, while Trinidad, fighting 10 pounds heavier than he ever has, entered to chants of “Tito . . . Tito.”
Jones flashed his hands speed early, but Trinidad countered by working the body with hooks right along the belt line. Jones clowned a bit in the third round, hanging on the ropes, inviting Trinidad to come in and exchange. Trinidad remained cautious, continuing to throw hooks to the belt, while Jones counterpunched in flurries.
Jones had predicted a fourth round knockout, but he didn’t drop Trinidad until 1:49 of the seventh with a stinging right hand to the temple that caused Trinidad to drop to his knees. Trinidad got up on wobbly legs, but the survived the round.
Oozing confidence, he dropped Trinidad again late in the 10th with a powerful left-right combination that knocked Trinidad off balance.
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In noted under card bouts, veteran heavyweight Andrew Golota (41-6-1), his left eye swollen shut for much of the fight, earned a hard-fought unanimous decision over Mike Mollo of Chicago (19-2). Former welterweight champion Luis Collazo of Queens (28-3, 13 KOs) won a unanimous decision over Edvan Dos Santos Barros of Miami. Devon Alexander of St. Louis won his 14th fight without a loss by out-pointing DeMarcus “Chop Chop” Corley. Alex Bunema of Zaire (29-5-2) captured the WBA Intercontinental Super Welterweight Championship with a 10-round knockout of Roman Karmazin of Russia, who was ahead on all scorecards.