NEW YORK — Everybody thought it would be Roy Jones Jr., the former heavyweight champion who struggled so mightily when he later shed those pounds, having trouble making weight for his fight tonight against Felix Trinidad.

Turns out it was the other way around.

Despite never fighting at more than 160 pounds, the Puerto Rican hero stepped on the scale yesterday at Madison Square Garden and appeared to be two-tenths over the catch weight of 170 — briefly causing a panic among his entourage, and inspiring the ebullient Jones to leap from his chair and grab the microphone.

"I don't care about that," Jones shouted into the decidedly pro-Trinidad crowd that jeered him mercilessly. "He can have the two-tenths of a pound. I just want my gloves and let's go."

Tito eventually did make weight, right on the number, after officials scooted the scale to a slightly more level part of the stage.

It's the lightest the former eight-time world champion has fought since knocking out Bryant Brannon in 1996.

Many people wondered whether Jones would be able to make weight, or have any strength left if he was successful. It was Jones, after all, who slowly packed on the pounds while winning titles at middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight.

Jones (51-4, 38 KOs) admits he wasn't smart in dropping weight after his foray into the heavyweights. He had put on too much muscle, which he found difficult to lose.

By contrast, Trinidad (42-2, 35 KOs) has never carried so much weight into the ring — and only a couple of times has he even been at 160. One of them was a devastating 12-round loss to Ronald "Winky" Wright in his last fight more than two years ago.