By Chris Williams: Interim WBC light middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (44-1-1, 24 KOs) hopes to put on a good display of his talent tomorrow night when he faces the powerful former IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron at the BankAtlantic Center, in Sunrise, Florida. Martinez, 33, despite being a little older than most of the top light middleweights in the division, may in fact be the best fighter among them. In contrast to big sluggers like Alfredo Angulo and James Kirkland, Martinez does it with his slick boxing skills which are a throwback to a young Roy Jones Jr.
Martinez, who originally was supposed to fight up and coming light middleweight contender Joe Greene on the 17th of January, but regrettably Martinez came up with a bad case of kidney stones and had to withdraw from the fight. Cintron then stepped up to the plate, moving up from the welterweight division, and took Greene’s place against Martinez.
This can either be a good thing or a bad thing for Martinez, because he looked good in boxing circles around the knockout artist Alex Bunema in his last fight , an 8th round stoppage victory in October 2008. However, Cintron would seem to be a much more capable fighter than Bunema was, making this a tougher fight for Martinez if he hopes to try and duplicate what he did against Bunema.
Martinez is a southpaw, who specializes in making his more powerful opponents look bad. He doesn’t have much in the way of power, and focuses more on landing a lot of punches and beating his opponents mentally, breaking them down round after round. Cintron, however, is more than just a knockout artist. He’s good exceptional skills for a fighter with the power that he has, and can turn them on when things call for it.
Against a slick fighter like Martinez, Cintron probably is aware by now that he stands very little chance if he attempts to take Martinez out in an early knockout attempt. Although Martinez is susceptible against a fighter with heavy pressure and a good chin, having been stopped in the 7th round by Antonio Margarito in February 2000, but it takes a special breed of fighter to do what Margarito did against Martinez.
For Cintron to try and duplicate the same result, he will have to have a good chin, great stamina and be able to walk through a lot of punishment in order to wear Martinez out and stop him. It’s certainly possible, but it will take a lot an in shape Cintron, who must be entirely focused on fighting very hard for three minutes of every round if he hopes to wear Martinez down enough to stop him.
My guess is that Cintron doesn’t have it in him anymore to fight hard enough to take Martinez out, but it remains a possibility. For sure, if he doesn’t and tries to stand in front of Martinez, hoping to catch him with one big shot, Martinez will have too much for him and likely take him out with his light, slapping shots.
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