By Chris Williams: Interim WBC light middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (44-1-2, 24 KOs) got a bad break in his fight with Kermit Cintron (30-2-1, 27 KOs) on Saturday night, when referee Frank Santore Jr. appeared to count out Cintron in the 7th after Martinez had knocked Cintron down with a hard left hand. However, Santore said that Cintron had gotten up at the count of nine, rather than ten, allowing the fight to continue. Whether that was so or not, two of the judges appeared to make a mess of the scores by ruling the fight as a 113-113 draw.
The third judge scored it correctly for Martinez by a 116-110 score, but because of the other two knotted up scores by the other judges, the fight was ruled a majority draw. Martinez had dominated much of the fight with his excellent speed and boxing skills, but instead of going home with a knockout victory, or at least a unanimous decision, he had to settle for a draw with Cintron.
Martinez was docked a point in the 12th by referee Santore for punching to the back of Cintron’s head, despite the fact that Cintron ducked into the shot by dipping his head down low in front of Martinez as he was punching. With the fight close like this, the referee saved Cintron from what was a guaranteed loss for a second time in the fight.
On a night like this, he turned out to be Cintron’s biggest friend saving him from going home a loser. Instead, the boxing fans at home and at ringside were the true losers, once again watching a controversial fight that left many of them unhappy with the results.
Even without the bad scoring and blown call by Santore and the judges, the fight was dull and barely watchable for the most part. The crowd booed the fight starting in the 5th round, unhappy with the lack of action. The problem was two-fold, starting with Cintron who wasn’t letting his hands go with enough regularity, and just focusing on loading up with his shots.
Martinez looked less aggressive than his last fight against Alex Bunema, throwing far less punches than he did in that fight. Cintron had something to do with that because he had faster hands than Bunema and was able to catch Martinez from time to time with big shots, making him much more cautious than he normally is.
In the 7th, Martinez landed hard left hand to the head of Cintron causing him to turn around and then back up several steps towards the ropes and take a knee. He then went down on his hands and knees. Referee Frank Santore Jr. then began giving him the count. At the count of 10, Cintron rose to his feet, and beat the count according to the referee.
However, for those who watched and listened to the count it was pretty clear that Cintron hadn’t beaten the count and was still down at the count of 10. Instead of the fight being stopped, Cintron was allowed to continue.
Strangely enough, Cintron appeared confused about things, arguing loudly with the referee that the knockdown had been the result of a head butt. However, the only contact between Martinez and Cintron was from Martinez’s hard left hand that struck Cintron in the jaw hard, snapping his head back and sending him backwards a few steps to the canvas.
Aside from the 7th and 12th, both controversial, Martinez had appeared to win most of the other rounds with his sharp left hand, excellent movement and good counter punching. Cintron landed the harder shots, but he threw far less punches in each round.
Cintron could have helped himself if he let his hands go more often, but he seemed to be conserving energy. His offense lacked variety, as he threw the same one-two combinations all fight long, looking the same each time.