Once beaten International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (29-1, 27 KOs) made it public yesterday his desire to meet up with Antonio Margarito as soon as possible to get revenge for his previous defeat to him, a one-sided 5th round TKO loss in April 2005.
Apparently, Cintron, 28, feels that he wasn’t ready last time out against Margarito, saying “I was coming off a 9 month layoff, hand surgery, and had only 4 weeks to prepare. I’m not going to make any more excuses, but I know that fight was a fluke. When I fight Margarito again, the fight will once again end in a knockout. Only this time, it will be Margarito lying on the canvas.”
What Cintron fails to remember, however, is that he was out-gunned in virtually every second of the bout, lacking both the handspeed and the punching output to contend with Margarito. Cintron, who normally relies on his tremendous punching power to dispatch with most of his foes, his punches had little effect on Margarito. To be sure, Cintron was so busy taking shot after shot, he had little time to throw his normally slow return fire. Margarito dropped him several times before the referee decided that the bout should be stopped, as Cintron was badly hurt from Margarito’s offensive attack.
Cintron added this about Margarito, “Right now, I’m a world champion and he’s not. If he thinks he’s the best, come and get my belt. I have it and he’s saying he wants it…so let’s get it on.”
It’s unclear whether the desire to fight Margarito is his or Cintron’s trainer, Emanuel Steward, but it’s more likely that it’s coming from Cintron himself, since Steward would probably be against such a risky bout like one against Margarito, due to the one-sided nature of their previous fight. Before suffering an injury to his right hand in his last bout against Jesse Feliciano, Cintron had been planning on fighting Paul Williams, the World Boxing Organization welterweight champion.
The match, however, figured to be a tough bout for Cintron, one that few felt that he would win because of William’s vast skill. The injury to Cintron, though, seems to have given him a second look at things and shaken some sense into him. Cintron, obviously, would be a tremendous long shot against Margarito as well, but this appears to be Cintron wanting to clear his name from the humiliating loss to Margarito last time out. It seems like a brave move on Cintron’s part, yet not exactly the smartest thing to do because of the fact that he appears to not match up well with Margarito.
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