Delli Defeats Cintron

By Boxing News - 06/09/2008 - Comments

By Scott Gilfoid: Light welterweight Gustavo Delli (1-2) defeated Harold Cintron (0-1) by a four-round majority decision on Friday night at the Sovereign Performing Arts Center, in Reading, Pennsylvania. Cintron, 31, the older brother of former IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron, was making his first professional fight and believe me, it showed. He looked terrible for the most part, throwing wild shots with little form and looking more like an amateur than a true professional.

Like his brother, however, Harold showed that he has a good uppercut, which was what make the fight close at the end when he unloaded with some big shots in the final round of the 4-round bout. Both fighters were swinging wildly, making the fight look more like a traditional tough man contest than a true boxing match. In the end, Delli’s much superior work rate was the telling factor enabling him to escape with the win. The final judges’ scores were 39-37, 39-37 and 38-38. Cintron was cut badly on the side of his left eye in the 3rd round, and bled badly in the last round.

In the 1st round, Cintron looked good, throwing uppercuts and hitting with hard right hands as he pressed forward. The round was fairly close, but Cintron appeared to have landed the much harder shots, enough to win the round by a close margin. Cintron’s height (5’6″), or lack thereof, was immediately apparent as he looked much shorter than Delli. Though it didn’t effect him in this round due to his high work rate, Cintron had problems in rounds two and four with the longer reach of Delli, who was able to get his punches in first by virtue of his longer arms.

In the 2nd round, Delli began to really work Cintron over, keeping him pinned against the ropes where he battered him with shots for much of the round. I couldn’t understand why Cintron, the brother of a famous fighter like Kermit, wouldn’t have the presence of mind to get off the ropes and take the fight to the center of the ring where he’d be less at a disadvantage. After awhile, I figured that Cintron simply couldn’t even if he wanted to, because Delli seemed to have the better stamina and kept Cintron under a constant deluge of punches. By the end of the round, Cintron looked very unhappy having been battered for much of the round. At one time during the round, Cintron tried complaining to the referee about having been head-butted in the round but the referee did little other than listen impassively to Cintron’s complaints. Welcome to professional boxing, Cintron.

Cintron continued to take nonstop shots in the 3rd round, as Delli unloaded with one shot after another staying on top of Cintron the whole time. I can’t says I blame Cintron for struggling against Delli, because he was a very tough fighter for any fighter, obviously much more so for a complete novice without any boxing experience like the 31 year-old Cintron. As it was, Cintron got hit a lot in the 3rd round and was bleeding badly from the cut on the left side of his eye. However, it was how Cintron was reacting that was the most telling, because he looked frustrated, unhappy and almost helpless as he didn’t have any idea how to turn off the high pressure offense of Delli.

In the 4th round, Delli started off well, pounding Cintron incessantly much like had in the two previous rounds. This time, however, Cintron began to fire back, mostly with uppercuts which he discovered immediately seemed to have an effect on Delli, snapping his head and causing him to take a backwards step for the first time in the fight. The crowd got involved at this point, screaming every time Cintron would land an uppercut. In the end, though, it was a case of too little too late for Cintron. He had simply given up too many rounds and wasn’t able to pull out the win in the end.



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