Low Profile

LAS VEGAS — Think of Roberto Duran.

The image of the Panamanian former champion is clear and frightening: a fighter with raw power, anger, ferocity, “Hands of Stone.”

Think of the Mexican pitcher Fernando Valenzuela.

The image is familiar and indelible: a pitcher with overwhelming confidence, masterful control, an unhittable screwball and a heartwarming joy of living.

Neither man spoke English. It didn’t matter. The American public got the message and responded.

Think of Felix Trinidad.

The image of the Puerto Rican champion, who also doesn’t speak English, is, what? Unclear at best, ignored at worst.

Trinidad’s name should be on the lips of every boxing fan, if not sports fan, in the world, his face as familiar as Oscar De La Hoya’s or Mike Tyson’s.

Trinidad has beaten De La Hoya, who at the time was the world’s most popular fighter. Trinidad has beaten two other Olympic gold-medal winners, Pernell Whitaker and David Reid, been a dominating force at 147 pounds and is trying to be the same at 154 pounds.

His name is on nearly every list ranking the world’s best pound-for-pound fighters.

Trinidad’s fight against Fernando Vargas on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center for both Trinidad’s World Boxing Assn. title and Vargas’ International Boxing Federation crown could actually be a championship fight that lives up to the hype, a match so compelling that even Don King can’t exaggerate its importance.

Yet Trinidad has failed to inspire much interest beyond the shores of his island home.

He is Puerto Rico’s reigning hero, a larger-than-life figure whose victory over De La Hoya last year generated an island-wide party that lasted several days. A movement is underway to name a new arena, envisioned as Puerto Rica’s centerpiece, the Felix Trinidad Center, even though he is only 27 and has been fighting for only a decade.

Yet on these shores, Trinidad is nowhere to be seen, except on posters trumpeting his next fight. Butterbean, a boxing sideshow, is a more marketable boxer.

And it comes down to more than just the language barrier.

Vargas has a story line made for prime time. He’s angry and combative with a violent, troubled past and a deep-seated hatred of his father, who abandoned the family before Vargas was born.

Real soap-opera stuff.

Trinidad, on the other hand, would have trouble selling his story anywhere but the Family Channel.

If there is controversy here, it is a well-kept secret. What the world sees is a big smile, an angelic face, a best friend-manager-trainer relationship with his father, a wife and two kids and a history of being a solid citizen who gives freely of himself for a myriad of Puerto Rican causes.

During his victory parade after the triumph over De La Hoya, Trinidad spotted a young girl waving to him from the window of a hospital.

When the parade was over, Trinidad went back to the hospital to visit his young fan.

Cheerful material for the general public, but a big yawner to the bloodthirsty fight crowd.

When Vargas boasted about being so ferocious in training camp that eight of his sparring partners had been sent home to lick their wounds, Trinidad, through an interpreter, said, “They didn’t leave because he was ferocious. They left because he was obnoxious.”

Reporters jumped on the remark because it was a rarity for Trinidad, a quote worth using.

Usually he says things like, “The money is good, but what is more important is that I am looking for glory for myself and my country.”

Sincere, perhaps, but hardly gripping.

“Duran communicated with his body language, his facial language,” television analyst Larry Merchant said. “People saw him as angry, macho, steel-tough. Duran did not speak English, but he spoke boxing. That enabled him to make an impact in America. He was fiery, intense.

“What Felix has does not translate well. He is very handsome, very gifted, but he is single-minded. He is a prizefighter and there is nothing else going on.

“There is a fierceness there, but it does not come across into reality. There is not an element of danger there, which people seem to want. This guy is a beautifully efficient fighting machine. He can be deadly and lethal, but people do not seemed thrilled by that. It takes an appreciation of the craft to relate to him.”

Bert Sugar, longtime boxing writer and editor, thinks Trinidad should begin to remake his disappointing image by doing something about his nickname, “Tito.”

Said Sugar: “Hands of Stone does not translate to Tito. What does Tito mean? At one point, Trinidad was told he would be better off with some other nickname, like ‘Breeze of the Caribbean.’ No, he said, it’s Tito.

“It’s not because he’s Puerto Rican. Wilfredo Gomez was a great Puerto Rican fighter whose nickname was Bazooka. That helped make him recognizable.

“You tell people Felix, they think more of Felix Unger [a character in ‘The Odd Couple’]. Does Trinidad have a presence? Does he have a personality? He doesn’t connect. He is the most unrecognized fighter of stature in the world today.

“In Puerto Rico, he is certainly a hero and he probably thinks that’s enough. But, in terms of the boxing world, that’s like being the most recognized guy in Pocatello, Idaho.”

Trinidad and his father, Felix Sr., have an ambitious agenda. They plan to win Saturday, move up to 160 pounds and take on the best the middleweight division has to offer--meaning Bernard Hopkins and William Joppy--and then capping Trinidad’s career at 168 pounds against Roy Jones Jr.

But even if all that comes to pass, Trinidad still might not break into the public consciousness.

“What Duran had, what De La Hoya has, they had when they were young,” Merchant said. “They made a connection with the world. If it doesn’t happen when you are young, it can be hard to achieve.

“Larry Holmes and Marvin Hagler were wonderful prizefighters, really talented. But they didn’t connect with the public for a long time. You can win respect and admiration, but you can’t win love.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Fight Facts

* Main event: Felix Trinidad (38-0, 31 knockouts) vs. Fernando Vargas (20-0, 18 knockouts) for WBA and IBF junior-middleweight titles.

* Card begins: 6 p.m. PST Saturday.

* Where: Mandalay Bay Events Center, Las Vegas.

* Television: TVKO pay per view.

OTHER BOUTS

* IBF light-flyweight championship--Champion Ricardo “Finito” Lopez (48-0-1, 35 KOs) vs. Ratanapol Vorapin (38-5-1, 30 KOs).

* WBA middleweight championship--Two-time champion William Joppy (31-1-1, 23 KOs) vs. Guillermo Jones (26-2-1, 21 KOs).

* Women--Christy Martin (40-2-2, 30 KOs) vs. Sabrina Hall (10-1-1, 4 KOs).

FELIX TRINIDAD

(38-0, 31 knockouts)

vs. FERNANDO VARGAS

(20-0, 18 knockouts)

Saturday at Mandalay Bay Events Center, Las Vegas,

Card starts at 6 p.m. PST