In the past week, International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (29-1, 27 KOs) has publically called out Antonio Margarito (35-5, 25 KOs), saying that he wants to fight him as soon as possible, apparently a move made to attempt to erase the previous stain of defeat for Cintron. Two years earlier, in April 2005, Cintron, 28, was stopped in five brutal rounds by Margarito, a bout in which Cintron was knocked down four times before the fight was finally stopped at 2:12 of the 5th round.
I personally don’t see how the fight will be any different than the first time because Cintron doesn’t have an answer for Margarito’s high volume punch output. While Cintron is the harder puncher of the two, he tends to be much more selective of his punches, loading up for an occasional huge shot, whereas Margarito throws a steady volume of hard shots which make it difficult on his opponents. Cintron showed that he couldn’t deal with that kind of fire power from Margarito and quickly succumbed to Margarito’s constant raining punches. It didn’t matter that Cintron hit harder, because Margarito proved to be able to take his punches without much problem.
However, going into the bout, Cintron hadn’t fought in the previous nine months, spending the time away from boxing nursing yet another injury to his right hand, this one requiring surgery. It had been the longest layoff of his career up to that point, and instead of taking a tuneup before stepping up against a fighter as dangerous as Margarito, Cintron foolishly assumed that he didn’t need one, and rushed head first into the bout. Cintron paid dearly for his mistake, as Margarito quickly overwhelmed him after a quiet first two rounds.
In the 3rd round, Cintron tried to open up with big power shots, and instead of hurting or causing Margarito to back off, he began unleashing his own fire power, landing a number of big hooks to the body and head in the round. Late in the round, Margarito briefly stunned Cintron with a big left uppercut followed by a sweeping right hand that cut Cintron over his right eye. It got much worse for Cintron in the 4th round, when Margarito wobbled him with a right to the body and another right to the back of his head.
As he attempted to cover up, Cintron was dropped by a right uppercut by Margarito. Cintron never recovered from that punch, as he was quickly sent down again after attempting to grab onto Margarito’s waist, and was met with a short left hook that dropped him for the second time in the round. Margarito, who usually is a slow starter, continued to swarm Cintron, throwing looping punches as Cintron tried in vain to cover-up.
In the 5th round, Margarito really began to unload with his shots, throwing non-stop looping hooks to the body and head of Cintron, and hurting him constantly. By this time, Cintron was mostly covering up and taking punishment. Shortly into the round, Margarito dropped Cintron with a right-left combination. After getting up, Cintron immediately grabbed Margarito in a clinch to try and prevent him from tagging him with another shot. However, Margarito worked his left hand free and threw a short left hand that dropped Cintron for the 4th time in the round.
The punch only traveled around a foot. After getting up, Cintron dejectedly turned his back on Margarito and walked towards his cornerman, as if to look for them to stop the fight. Subsequently, the bout was immediately stopped. At that point, Cintron began sobbing loudly, visibly upset about the one-sided destruction.
For anyone that’s seen this fight, it’s hard to imagine the outcome being any different next time around. Certainly, Cintron has the power to end a fight at any time, but the main problem is that Margarito has an excellent chin, and isn’t troubled in the least by Cintron’s power. While at the same time, Margarito’s all out punching style is one that Cintron doesn’t seem to do well against. He needs a fighter that fights in short bursts rather than someone like Margarito who turns the fight into a brawl, making it difficult for Cintron to match him punch for punch.
I’m guessing that Cintron’s trainer, Emanuel Steward, realizes that Cintron is making a big mistake in fighting Margarito, and is perhaps subtlety trying to persuade him not to take the fight for fear that he’ll lose as easily as last time. What’s worse, however, is that once again Cintron is dealing with an injury to his right hand, and if he does end up taking on Margarito for his next title defense, it will be like re-living past history.
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