By Nate Anderson: This Saturday, unbeaten WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (31-0, 25 KOs), will defend his title against former star from The Contender reality television show Alfonso Gomez (18-3-2, 8 KOs) at the Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey. On the other card, IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (29-1, 27 KOs), will be defending his title against his former conqueror Antonio Margarito (35-5, 25 KOs), who stopped him in a 5th round TKO in April 2005.
Most fans are eager to see both fights, in particular the Cotto-Gomez fight, although that fight figures to be more of a one-sided fight given the talent gulf separating the undefeated Cotto and Gomez. However, anything is possible as Gomez, 27, is fighting at the best in his short career and is capable of pulling off an upset unless Cotto gives it his best effort on Saturday. Ranked #9 overall in the IBF, Gomez is coming off of wins over Ben Tackie and Arturo Gatti. The win over Gatti was particularly impressive in that he stopped him in the 7th in 2007, a fight that Gatti was never in regards to fighting competitively.
However, Gomez is limited by his lack of crushing power and speed, which has hampered him in losses to Jesse Feliciano and Peter Manfredo Jr. Though ranked #9 in the IBF, overall Gomez is well below that in my estimation in compared to the best welterweights in all of the other alphabet groups in the welterweight division. That’s where the problem lies, since Cotto is probably the second best welterweight in the division, after Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Gomez isn’t anywhere near the talent of either of those two.
This would seem to suggest that he has little chance other than trying to go for a quick knockout, if he has any chance at winning. His power, though, isn’t the type for which allows him to KO his opponents early, however. This means he’s going to have to come up with some other strategy if he has any hope of beating Cotto. Without a doubt, standing directly in front of Cotto is the wrong thing to do, for it will likely lead to him getting knocked out sooner than he would otherwise.
In the other fight, Cintron, 28, arguably the hardest puncher in the welterweight division, will take on his old nemisis Antonio Margarito. A lot of people feel that Cintron is for all practical purposes commiting suicide by facing Margarito, in that Cintron was so thoroughly dominated by him the first time out, getting knocked down multiple times in the bout before it was stopped in the 5th round. Obviously, however, Cintron has had a hard time living with his one-sided beating by Margarito, and wants to somehow get it behind him by taking him on again.
The thing of it is, he didn’t have to because he could have fought someone else instead, but it means a lot to Cintron, who’d rather fight the best rather than take easy fights like most fighters do. In terms of power, Cintron has a clear advantage over Margarito in that deparment. But, Margarito has one of the best chins in the division, meaning that Cintron is going to either have to plan on winning by using his boxing skills or by out-punching Margarito in his usual high volume offense. I don’t expect Cintron to be able to throw as many punches as Margarito, and I doubt that he’s training to do this.
Unless I miss my guess, he’s probably looking at boxing him, by using his jab to try and keep Maragarito on the outside as much as possible. Even under the best circumstances, this would be a close win for Cintron. He simply doesn’t match up well with Margarito, who has both excellent power and a non-stop punching attack. Look for Margarito to win by TKO aroundn the 7th round.