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Roy for his part landed a few zipping counters, but never tried to play the role of aggressor. “RJ” instead opted to goad “Tito” into leading so that he could counterpunch the Puerto Rican via rope-a-dope. Unwilling to be taunted into getting outside of his fight plan, Trinidad opted to box backwards where he jabbed stiffly to set up increasingly flush hooks the body which Jones excitedly invited in round two.

Sensing that he was losing rounds to the steady and smart pressure of the busier crowd favorite, Jones increasingly brought the fight to the smaller man in the fourth round where he landed crisp shots to both lessen the volume of body punches coming his way while simultaneously forcing Trinidad to come forward.

Trinidad’s body punches first starting paying dividends in the fifth round, when Jones complained to referee Arthur Mercante Jr. about low blows, which elicited the crowd to boo at what they felt were legally landed body punches. After this complaint, Jones stepped up his headhunting to begin landing some of the cleanest shots of the night.

Correctly sensing that he would have to take more risks to prevent the Puerto Rican from continuing to torch his torso and take the crowd out of the fight and the judges’ ears, Jones stuffed Trinidad with clean straight rights and left hooks to end the sixth round and swing the momentum to his favor.

On cue, the Jones supporters in the crowd’s chants of “Roy Jones Junior!” became louder and louder just as a Jones short right hook to Trinidad’s temple short circuited Trinidad’s balance and forced him into a delayed-reaction tumble to the canvas. The rest of the seventh round and the entire eighth heat would see Trinidad try to recover from the tumble and adjust to Roy’s increasing hand speed by boxing conservatively on his back foot.

RJ’s increasingly zippy head-snapping uppercuts and hooks throughout the ninth round were not helping “Tito” get back his momentum or crowd support. Neither was Trinidad’s seeming inability to mount an offense more prolific than the occasional left hook to the body and muffed hooks to the head.

Roy’s superior speed took over in the 10th round when he landed increasingly flush uppercuts and hooks to Tito’s head that culminated in a textbook one-two that deposited the former three-division world champion over the “Ciroc” vodka logo in the middle of the ring. An 11th round that featured Trinidad trying to close the gap in scoring by fighting aggressively, but not too aggressively, while Jones and his trainer, Alton Merkerson, yukked it up during and in-between the championship rounds prompted dozens in attendance to start heading for the 8th Avenue exits before the final bell.

Jones, now 52-4 (38 KOs), tested the waters in the 12th and final round for another quickie knockdown to no avail. After the last bell sounded, the crowd politely applauded the honest effort; which was a slightly more urbane way of booing an underwhelming performance from a favorite son that they love too much to boo after the 116-110 (twice) and 117-109 unanimous decision victory for Jones was announced.

However, judging by the lukewarm love that Trinidad, now 42-3 (35 KOs), got from the majority of the crowd during his in-ring post-fight interview with HBO announcer Max Kellerman, it’s safe to say that Jones slashed the tires on the Trinidad bandwagon, took it to an abandoned parking lot in the Bronx, and set it on fire while rapping in reggaeton.

Trainer Freddie Roach didn’t overhaul his charge Roman Karmazin’s style, but rather added head and upper body movement to an awkward stance that could best be described as a super-sized Vic Darchinyan. By shooting hard straight shots from his lowly held left hand, the lanky Russian was able to keep Alex Bunema at bay to set Alex up for long distance right crosses during the early rounds.

Bunema, now 29-5-2 (15 KOs), didn’t let the punishing counters keep him from pressing the action against Karmazin. After all, Karmazin isn’t particularly superior to the who’s who of tough junior middleweight grinders that Bunema has fought throughout his career. The African’s persistence and experience would pay off when Bunema landed a pair of confidence boosting right hands that rocked the Russian at the end of the ninth round.

DeMarcus Corley showed hotshot prospect Devon Alexander, now 14-0 (8 KOs), the difference between being a gifted boxer on the Midwestern circuit and stepping up against a wizened gatekeeper in Madison Square Garden. By effectively using spacing and angles to crowd Alexander in the early heats before boxing the youngster in the middle of the ring from the mid-rounds on, Corley was able to craftily counterpunch the eager prospect into a full blown gut check.

The athletic and undefeated rising star was breathing heavily by the fifth round on, courtesy of Corley’s timing digging counters into Alexander’s torso every time the Missouri native telegraphed his snappy one-twos. Alexander had the unmistakable look of the next great thing that expected to run through the old man, now 31-8-1 (17 KOs), in front of him before realizing just how much sinister feints suck when they’re setting up flush combos.

Instead of setting up a title fight with a decisive win over Mollo, Golota ate enough right hands to swell his eye and summon the bitter beer face that consumes Andrew’s countenance when sure wins suddenly turn into troublesome tussles i.e., Michael Grant, Terrence Lewis, and John Ruiz.

Constant pressure and huge cogliones powered Mollo’s little train that could from Palooka-ville almost all the way to Upset Boulevard. However, the championship rounds were not kind to the winded Mollo, now 19-2 (12 KOs), whose constant holding didn’t make the kind of impression on the judges which was needed to squeak out an upset in Madison Square Garden.