MY FIRST TIME: FELIX TRINIDAD
MY BEST PUNCH “If I had to pick one, it would have to be my left hook against Maurice Blocker. That was my first world title, the IBF welterweight belt. Blocker was tall – taller than me – he had a long reach and was very experienced. I was 20. He was 30 and a two-time champion. He had fought the best of that time: Marlon Starling, Simon Brown, Terry Norris. Blocker was a good boxer, very crafty. “But, like I said, I’m there to win. Yes, I could punch, but I could box too, and I knew how to set up my power punches. “I knew I could jab with him, and if I could reach him with my jab, I could reach him with my straight right. If I could land the right, I knew I could finish him with my best punch – my left hook. “Near the end of the first round, I hit him with my straight right and wobbled him. I hit him with another right that hurt him just before the bell, so I knew I would get him soon. “From the start of the second round, I was on the hunt. I had him in trouble by the middle of the round. It was time to end it. “It was a left hook, straight right, another left hook, and then he was falling down when I got him with another right – Boom! On the side of his head – on the way down. AND THE NEW! (laughing as he pumps his fist) “Looking back, he was probably out after that first left hook. I landed a lot of hooks like that one throughout my career, but that one is special.”
MY FIRST PROFESSIONAL FIGHT March 10, 1990 – Angel Romero “It was in San Juan at the Olympic Auditorium. I won that fight with a second-round knockout. I was just 17 years old, but I felt good before, during and after the fight because my people were there to support me. The arena was sold out. All my family and friends were in the crowd, chanting: ‘TITO! TITO! TITO!’ “I always trained to win. If the knockout came, that was great. I was there to win, first and foremost, but I knew I had power and I loved making my fans happy with a knockout victory. “I always had a big group of very loud supporters at my fights, even when I was an amateur. They always had my back, and they gave me that chant: ‘TITO! TITO! TITO!’ So, of course, they followed me into my pro career and grew from there. But it all started in Puerto Rico.”
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