Felix Trinidad is one of the few fighters in boxing today who inspires true passion among his followers. “Tito” is a hero in his homeland of Puerto Rico, and when he fights in New York, it’s like carnival time and the Puerto Rican Day Parade rolled into one.

Twenty-nine months ago, Trinidad retired at age 29 with a record of 41-1. Now, after his victory over Ricardo Mayorga Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, Trinidad may well give his passionate followers something more to get riled up about: a rematch with Bernard Hopkins.

Hopkins dealt Trinidad the only loss of his career three years ago, stopping him in 12 rounds at Madison Square Garden. Bernard will be 40 years old in January. And Trinidad appears to have been rejuvenated by his time away from boxing.

Hopkins-Trinidad II would be an intensely interesting fight. But for it to happen, Bernard and Don King will have to settle their differences. King is Trinidad’s promoter. And he was Hopkins’s promoter for a three-year period that ended in January of this year. Now DK and Hopkins are engaged in an ugly arbitration proceeding. But money talks and, in boxing, salves all wounds.

In the meantime, Trinidad’s fans can savor Tito’s exciting win against Mayor ga, a nonstop brawler whose signature victory was a 2003 knockout of Vernon Forrest for the WBC and WBA welterweight titles.

Each man weighed in comfortably below the middleweight limit – Trinidad at 157 3/4 pounds, Mayorga at 158. A crowd of 17,406 was on hand at Madison Square Garden. They were more than fight fans, they were idolators. And the night belonged to Trinidad.

Mayorga was the aggressor in the first two minutes of Round 1, with Felix throwing next to nothing at all. Then Trinidad landed a big left hook and Mayorga stuck out his chin, daring him to do it again. So Felix did it again and followed with a straight right hand that wobbled his foe.

Thereafter, fans were treated to a marvelously entertaining, action packed brawl. Trinidad’s best weapon was a straight right hand, but he scored with a variety of blows. Mayorga’s primary weapon was his left hook, but when it landed, Felix stood up to it.

There was a fluke knockdown in Round 3, when Mayorga landed a clubbing right hand to the top of Trinidad’s head and Felix’s glove touched the canvas. That created a quandary for the judges. As a general rule, when a fighter scores a knockdown, the round is scored 10-8 in his favor. But here, except for the “knockdown,” Trinidad dominated the round. One could have scored the stanza even (as this observer did) or 10-9 in Mayorga’s favor. What one should not have done was score it 10-8 for Mayorga, which was what each of the three judges did.

Other than that, Trinidad won every round, systematically and brutally beating Mayorga down. Mayorga is tough: He took blow after blow and stayed on his feet despite being battered, literally, from post to post. By Round 8, his left cheek was split open and the eye above it was a bloody mess. Then Trinidad put him down with a horrific left hook to the body. Two more knockdowns followed, and at 2:39 of the stanza, referee Steve Smoger stopped the fight.

Trinidad landed twice as many punches as Mayorga (290 to 141). And he connected on an extraordinary 63% of his punches thrown.

As for what comes next, Trinidad has myriad options. One possibility is a big money rematch against Oscar De La Hoya, whom Felix defeated on a questionable decision five years ago. That would require King and promoter Bob Arum to do business together. Trinidad versus the winner of the November 20 match-up between Winky Wright and Shane Mosley would also be attractive. But the fight that most fans want to see is a rematch between Felix Trinidad and Bernard Hopkins.