Juan Felix "Tito" Trinidad Garcia (born January 10, 1973), best known as Felix Trinidad, is a Puerto Rican former professional boxer, considered one of the best in Puerto Rico's history. After winning five National amateur Championships in Puerto Rico, Trinidad debuted as a professional when he was seventeen. He would go on to become a three-weight world champion, first by defeating Maurice Blocker for the IBF welterweight title. Trinidad holds the record for the second most welterweight title defenses, with fifteen, and also holds the record for the longest reign as welterweight champion, at six years, eight months and fourteen days.

During his career he fought Oscar De La Hoya to win the lineal and WBC welterweight titles; Fernando Vargas in a unification fight for the IBF light middleweight title; and William Joppy to win the WBA middleweight title. Trinidad's first professional loss was against Bernard Hopkins, who scored a technical knockout. Following this, Trinidad retired for the first time. He returned to action by beating Ricardo Mayorga and, after a losing effort against Winky Wright, retired a second time. In 2008, he returned to the ring to fight Roy Jones Jr., losing the contest by unanimous decision. Subsequently, Trinidad entered a five-year hiatus without clarifying the status of his career.

Trinidad is frequently mentioned among the best Puerto Rican boxers of all time by sports journalists and analysts, along with Miguel Cotto, Wilfred Benitez, Wilfredo Gomez, Hector "Macho" Camacho, and Carlos Ortiz.

On June 4, 2014, Trinidad was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, thus becoming the tenth Puerto Rican to receive such an honor.

Professional career

Welterweight

Trinidad debuted as a professional on March 10, 1990, when he was 17 years old. The fight was against Angel Romero, another debuting boxer, in a contest that Trinidad won by knockout in the second round. In the beginning of his career he knocked out nine of his first 10 opponents. He then competed against more experienced boxers like Jake Rodriguez, whom he fought on December 6, 1991. Trinidad won the fight by unanimous decision but suffered an injury on his right hand. He was then inactive for five months while recovering from the injury.

Raul Gonzalez fought Felix Trinidad on May 3, 1992 in Cayey, Puerto Rico. This fight was the main event of the night. Both Gonzalez and Trinidad weighed in at 142 pounds. Gonzalez had a record of 8-2-3 with 5 KOs, while Trinidad had a record of 13-0 with 10 KOs. Gonzalez went down three times, and Trinidad took the victory in round four by TKO. Trinidad would add another victory by KO to his record and would now make it 14-0 with 11 KOs.

Welterweight title

Trinidad traveled to San Diego, California and defeated the IBF welterweight champion Maurice Blocker in two rounds, in a fight card that took place on June 19, 1993, televised by Showtime. Trinidad spent the first two minutes of the fight analyzing Blocker's style. With 11 seconds left in the first round, one of Trinidad's punches injured Blocker, who barely survived the round. In the second round, the champion's condition appeared to improve, but after the first 30 seconds, another Trinidad punch injured him. Trinidad followed with a combination, scoring a knockout at 1:49 in the round when the referee stopped the fight. Afterwards, tournament organizer Don King's exclusive relationship to stage fights for the cable channel Showtime meant that Trinidad would be showcased regularly on Showtime Championship Boxing.

Trinidad vs Camacho

Trinidad defended his title for the next three years against several opponents. Trinidad's first fight in Las Vegas was against Hector Camacho on January 29, 1994. He was cautious during the first rounds and received a cut over his left eye. In the third round he connected a solid combination that made Camacho change to a defensive stance. Throughout the fight Trinidad was on the offensive and won the fight by unanimous decision, in what was his first decision since he won the world championship. The scores awarded by the judges were 117-109, 116-110, 119-106.