Félix Juan Trinidad García, popularly known as "Tito" Trinidad, is a Puerto Rican former professional boxer who competed from 1990 to 2008. He held multiple world championships in three weight classes and is considered to be one of the greatest Puerto Rican boxers of all time.
Boxing in the 1980s was filled with important fights, events and personalities that shaped the sport. Boxing in the 1980s was shaped by many different situations, such as the continuous corporate battles between the different world sanctioning organizations, the void left by Muhammad Ali as the sport's ambassador and consequent search for a new boxing hero, the continuous presence of Don King as the sport's most famous promoter, the surge of rival promoters as Bob Arum, Butch Lewis and Murad Muhammad, and major rule changes. In 1986, Mike Tyson emerged as a fresh new face in the heavyweight division, which had seen a decline in champion quality level after Ali's retirement and, later on, after longtime WBC ruler Larry Holmes' prime. In addition, the IBF and WBO began operating.
During the 1970s, boxing was characterized by dominating champions and history-making rivalries. The decade had many superstars, who also had fierce rivals. Alexis Argüello, for example, who won the world Featherweight and Jr. Lightweight titles in the '70s, had to overcome Alfredo Escalera twice before the decade was over.
Terry Wayne Norris is an American former boxer, prized fighter and a three time world champion in the light-middleweight (super-welterweight) division. Originally from Lubbock, Texas, he fought out of San Diego.
The Trinidad versus Mayorga fight, also known as "Back with a Vengeance", was a boxing event pitting former world champions Felix Tito Trinidad and Ricardo Mayorga. The fight took place on October 2, 2004, under the promotion of Don King, at the Madison Square Garden in New York City, United States.
Cory Spinks is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1997 to 2013. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the undisputed welterweight title from 2003 to 2005, and the IBF junior middleweight title twice between 2006 and 2010. Additionally, he challenged once for the lineal middleweight title in 2007.
Jermain Taylor is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2014. He remains the most recent undisputed middleweight champion, having won the WBA (Undisputed), WBC, IBF, WBO, and The Ring middleweight titles in 2005 by beating Bernard Hopkins, and in doing so ending Hopkins' ten-year reign as middleweight champion. This made Taylor the first, and to date, only male boxer in history to claim each title from all four major boxing sanctioning organizations in a single fight. He once again defeated Hopkins six months later, making him the only fighter to have defeated Hopkins twice. He retired as a world champion in the months that followed his capture of the IBF middleweight title for a second time, after making a substantial recovery from a brain injury sustained earlier in his career.
Ronald LamontWright is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1990 to 2012. He is a two-time light middleweight world champion and was the last to hold the undisputed title at that weight until Jermell Charlo in 2022. In his later career he also challenged for a unified middleweight world title. He announced his retirement from boxing in 2012, following a loss to Peter Quillin.
In boxing, the undisputed champion of a weight class is the boxer who simultaneously holds world sanctioning organisations recognized major by each other and the International Boxing Hall of Fame. There are currently four major sanctioning bodies: WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO. There were many undisputed champions before the number of major sanctioning bodies recognizing each other increased to four in 2007, but there have only been 18 boxers to hold all four titles simultaneously.
As in the 1980s, the 1990s in boxing's popularity focused on all divisions. When 1980s legends Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, as well as others retired, newer superstars filled the void: Pernell Whitaker, Julio César Chávez, in the early 1990s, Oscar De La Hoya, Félix Trinidad, Roy Jones Jr. and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the mid to late 1990s.
Simon Brown is a former professional boxer. Known as "Mantequilla", a name given to him by his famous trainer Jose 'Pepe' Correa, Brown was two-weight world champion in the welterweight and light-middleweight divisions, and at one point considered one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in boxing.
Félix Trinidad vs. Bernard Hopkins, billed as And Then There Was One, was a boxing match that took place on September 29, 2001, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, between WBC and IBF middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins and WBA middleweight champion Félix Trinidad to unify all three titles and decide the first undisputed middleweight champion since Marvin Hagler. The winner would also become The Ring middleweight champion. The undercard featured championship fights in three other weight classes.
Bernard Hopkins Jr. is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2016. He is one of the most successful boxers of the past three decades, having held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the undisputed middleweight title from 2001 to 2005, and the lineal light heavyweight title from 2011 to 2012.
Riddick Bowe vs. Michael Dokes, billed as The Homecoming, was a professional boxing match contested on February 6, 1993 for the WBA and IBF heavyweight championships. The fight emanated from Madison Square Garden in New York, New York.
Oscar De La Hoya vs. Bernard Hopkins, billed as It's History, was a professional boxing match contested on September 18, 2004 for Hopkins' WBA (Undisputed), WBC, IBF, and The Ring middleweight championships, and Oscar De La Hoya's WBO middleweight championship.
Oliver McCall vs. Larry Holmes, billed as "Burden of Proof", was a professional boxing match contested on April 8, 1995 for the WBC Heavyweight Championship. The undercard included world championship bouts in four other categories.
Anthony Perez was an American boxing referee and judge of Puerto Rican descent. During his career, he refereed many major boxing fights and participated in a number of boxing related documentaries.
Larry Hazzard Sr. is a former amateur boxer, boxing referee, athletic control board commissioner, teacher and actor. He is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, being inducted during 2010. Hazzard has served as Commissioner of the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board since 2014, his second stint as commissioner after serving from 1985 to 2007.
The history of the sport of boxing in Puerto Rico is a varied and extensive one. Boxing is a major sport in the Caribbean country, and the sport has produced many champions for the island, both in the amateur and professional ranks, and among men and women fighters.
