By Jason Kim: As much as I like former International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (30-2-1, 27 KOs), I think he’s wasting his time at light middleweight. All the advantages that Cintron had over his opponents at welterweight seem to have melted away now that he’s made the ill-guided move to move up in weight to see if he can win a title at light middleweight.
On Saturday night, May 30th, Cintron will be taking on one of the toughest contenders in the division in unbeaten Mexican Alfredo Angulo (15-0, 12 KOs) at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Hollywood, Florida. Angulo, 26, has been knocking out almost all of his opponents and has a huge knockout string going into this fight, albeit against lesser competition than Cintron.
I think this is going to be a slaughter with Angulo destroying Cintron about as easy as Antonio Margarito wiped Cintron out last year in a 6th round stoppage to capture his IBF welterweight title. Angulo is like Margarito except much stronger than him.
I would have liked to have thought that Cintron got the hint that he wasn’t cut out for the light middleweight division in his last fight where Cintron was knocked down by Sergio Martinez with a big left hand. Cintron got away with murder in that fight by complaining that the knockdown was caused by a head butt and not from a punch.
The referee bout the excuse and let Cintron continue to fight when the referee should have counted Cintron out when he got up just as the referee had reached the 10 count. Martinez isn’t the biggest of punchers, yet he was able to badly hurt Cintron enough where he had stay down for most of the count.
Getting knocked down by Martinez isn’t a good sign going into a fight with a puncher like Angulo this Saturday. I’m not sure what Cintron can do to survive not getting knocked out in this one, because none of Angulo’s opponents have done well by trying to run from him.
Angulo cuts off the ring well and has a long reach that he can use against fighters that try to stay on the outside. Cintron, 29, probably won’t be looking to run or stay on the outside, because he likes to throw bombs at the midrange level, and I’m willing to bet that Cintron sees that as his only chance at winning this fight.
I think Cintron has good power, maybe even as well as Angulo when Kermit loads up on his shots. However, Cintron is unable to throw hard with every shot and that’s what it’s going to take to beat a fighter like Angulo. The major thing that Cintron will need is his chin to hold up for him in this fight.
If it does, then Cintron has a decent chance at winning the fight. I doubt that Cintron can outbox Angulo, because Alfredo tends to throw a ton of punches which makes it difficult to beat him by decision. However, Angulo’s chin is vulnerable as was shown in his fight against Richard Gutierrez in May 2008.
Angulo was staggered badly in the 5th by a big right hand from Gutierrez. However, Angulo recovered immediately and took advantage of Gutierrez’s poor defense to stop him seconds later.
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