By Manuel Perez: Welterweight Kermit Cintron (30-2-1, 27 KOs) lucked out on Saturday night in surviving what probably should have been a 7th round knockout to stick around long enough to be rewarded with a 12-round majority draw with light middleweight Sergio Martinez at the BankAtlantic Center, in Sunrise, Florida. Judging from the way that Cintron pranced around the ring, shaking his backside to and fro after the fight, Cintron seemed to actually believe that he did well and won the fight.
On the other hand, for many people who saw the fight on television and at ringside, they saw Martinez easily winning the fight. The judges didn’t, scoring it 113-113, 113-113 and 116-110. The 116-110 score was for Martinez, not Cintron. The most exciting point in the fight came in the 7th when Martinez tagged Cintron with a hard left hand knocking him down.
Cintron protested to the referee while being given the count, complaining that he had been head butted by Martinez. The referee counted until 10, which is the moment that Cintron got to his feet. Cintron then made a big fuss and argued about the knockdown being caused by a head butt and not a punch.
The referee calmly informed him that he hadn’t see any head butt, but this information didn’t please Cintron one bit. He continue to complain for several moments until finally walking back to his corner. Instead of complaining, Cintron should have been thanking the referee for not ending the fight because many referees would have probably stopped the bout.
If Cintron wasn’t hurt, he should have gotten up at the count of seven or eight instead of waiting until nine to start rising. By staying down for so long, he was almost asking for trouble from the referee. It was fortunate that he didn’t get stopped, although I think he should have been. Hopefully, the fight is looked at again and the results changed from draw to a 7th round knockout for Martinez, because the referee appeared to freeze when he saw Cintron not beat the count and allowed him to continue fighting when he perhaps shouldn’t have.
Martinez, 33, who should have been irate over the non-stoppage and the Cintron’s loud protesting, took it well, staying composed and not arguing his case with the referee. Martinez was watching the referee give Cintron the count and when he got to 10, seeing that Cintron hadn’t beaten the count, Martinez jumped up on the ropes and began to celebrate.
When he turned around, however, he saw that the referee had allowed the fight to continue and a look of shock came on Martinez’s face, maybe seeing how it feels when things don’t go right for you when you go to a foreign country to fight. The fight was continued after a lot of bickering, and Martinez fought well for the remaining five rounds, winning most of them. He was penalized in the 11th for a rabbit punch.
In the aftermath of the fight, many boxing fans feel sorry for Martinez, and believe that he was given a bad deal against Cintron. I’m not sure how well that makes Martinez feel, because it won’t remove the draw from his record and insert a win in its place. It’s doubtful that there’ll be a rematch for the fight, because Cintron is apparently moving back down to the welterweight division.