Five-Time World Champion Felix ‘Tito’ Trinidad Gives His Promoter
Don King $500,000 Birthday Gift
DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla.—Boxing promoter Don King received a gift of $500,000 from his fighter Felix “Tito” Trindad in celebration of his 80th birthday.
Trinidad, a five-time world champion who King promoted in his most thrilling world championship matches, was not able to come to South Florida to celebrate the milestone birthday with his longtime promoter on Aug. 20, so he sent the big present to let King know how much he appreciates all of his efforts on his behalf.
In a note that accompanied the gift, Felix “Tito” Trinidad and his father Juan Felix “Papa” Trinidad Rodriguez Sr. gave birthday wishes and noted their gratitude to King.
“We want to express congratulations on your 80th birthday and hope that you maintain good health for the years to come. We want to express our gratitude to you for the opportunities you gave us.”
King said it was completely unexpected.
“You can imagine my surprise when I received this gift from Tito and Papa,” King said. “We had been planning on getting together, but our schedules had not lined up. What a pleasant surprise it was for them to let me know they still love and appreciate me. I feel the same way about them.”
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
