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Title match gets green light

Trinidad to battle De La Hoya Sept. 18 in Las Vegas

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Posted: Tuesday June 01, 1999 04:39 PM

Felix Trinidad (left) is guaranteed $6.5 million less than Oscar De La Hoya. Al Bello/Allsport, Jed Jacobsohn/Allsport

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- More than six hours of negotiations earned Felix Trinidad Jr. an extra $500,000 and cleared the way for his welterweight unification fight against Oscar De La Hoya on Sept. 18.

Promoter Don King was happy with the deal that matches IBF champion Trinidad with De La Hoya, the WBC titleholder, at the new Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas.

"Everything turned out as we wished. In the end, we will present the match that all the world wants to see," King said.

If King was happy, Trinidad's father and manager, Felix Trinidad Sr., was less thrilled.

"Clearly I could have negotiated a better contract ... but it's the match that all the world wants to see and the time has come. It's past time for Tito to confront Oscar De La Hoya and knock him out to show for real who is the best," Trinidad Sr. said after the agreement was reached.

The final deal pays Trinidad $8.5 million and King $2 million. Trinidad also gets $300,000 for training costs and both men get an additional $4 each for every pay-per-view customer over 850,000.

De La Hoya will earn $15 million.

Sunday's negotiation provided an extra $500,000 for Trinidad over the original agreement and locks the Puerto Rican fighter into a share of what his father anticipates will be a record number of pay-per-view customers.

Trinidad, 35-0, scored the 30th knockout of his career when he stopped Hugo Pineda on Saturday night. De La Hoya is 31-0 with 22 knockouts.

Trinidad, who lost 18 pounds over two months to reach the welterweight limit of 147 pounds for the Pineda fight, was confident after Saturday.

"This was an important triumph on the way to my greatest challenge," he said. "This was a way for me to demonstrate to [De La Hoya] I'm ready for him."

De La Hoya suffered a sprained hand when he defended his title May 24 against Oba Carr, but said he would have time to recuperate before getting into training to face Trinidad.

"Let's get it on," De La Hoya said. "It will be the fight of the century."

 

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