In an act of either pure bravery or a sign of confused thinking, International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (29-1, 27 KOs) has reportedly signed to fight a rematch with his former conqueror Antonio Margarito (35-5, 25 KOs) on April 26th at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Apparently, the winner of the bout will possibly meeting up with Miguel Cotto, after he finishes destroying Alfonso Gomez on April 12th.
Cintron, 28, seems to have made a big mistake in opting to fight the 29 year-old Margarito, as he was previously destroyed by Margarito in a 5th round TKO in April 2005, a bout in which Cintron was knocked down four times in the process of losing the fight. After the first three rounds, the fight was no longer competitive, as Cintron didn’t have the punch output to match Margarito, and found himself getting hurt repeatedly by Margarito’s powerful hooks to the body and head. Cintron’s defense was poor, allowing Margarito to shoot through his guard with shots to the head.
Cintron didn’t help himself much, as he was often standing square to Margarito and covering up while Margarito unloaded on him with multiple bombardments of hooks. It was so one-sided that it would be hard to imagine a different outcome no matter how many times they fight. Cintron, however, was coming into the fight after a nine month layoff from an injury to his right hand, which kept him from being as sharp or as powerful as he normally is. I have my doubts whether a healthy Cintron would have changed much of the outcome, being that Margarito has an excellent chin, perhaps one of the best in the welterweight division.
This, of course, would likely mean that minus a knockout or a knock down of Margarito, Cintron would be forced to try and match Margarito’s high volume punch output. That’s not going to happen. Cintron would land one shot to ever six of Margarito’s, and it wouldn’t even out in the end. Margarito, ranked #1 in the World Boxing Organization, #3 in both the WBA & WBC and #4 in the IBF, hits plenty hard as well. Add to that, the fact that Margarito throws punches from every angle, making it difficult to tell where he punches are coming from at any time. Cintron just doesn’t match up with him, no matter how you want to look at this fight.
The thing of it is, Cintron didn’t have to take this fight, since there three fighters ranked ahead of Margarito – #1.) Joshua Clottey, #2.) Andre Berto and #3.) Zab Judah. In each, these are fighters that Cintron would have an excellent chance at beating, while at the same time allowing him to hold onto his IBF welterweight title for a little longer.
I give him a lot of respect for taking the fight with Margarito, for it takes courage to take one someone that dominated him like Margarito did. He’ll obviously be paid well for the fight, since it will get a lot of publicity due to him selecting Margarito as his opponent, and it will be shown live on HBO. Minus a minor miracle, I see Margarito scoring another knockout, likely by the 5th or 6th round once again.
Like I mentioned previously, it won’t matter what condition Cintron’s hand is, he’ll not be able to keep up with the pace that Margarito sets, and nor will he be able to withstand his tremendous shots. Beyond the 3rd or 4th round, this is going to be a one-sided beating, with Cintron getting knocked around the ring much like last time.