By Jason Kim: Former IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (30-2-1, 27 KOs) finds himself going up against one of the best young fighters in the light middleweight division on Saturday night against the undefeated Alfredo Angulo (15-0, 12 KOs) at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Hollywood, Florida.
Presumably, Cintron has moved up from the welterweight division in search of greener pastures looking for an easy to get title. However, the chances are more than good that Cintron will be destroyed by Angulo, 26, and sent packing back down to the welterweight division where Kermit probably should have never left in the first place.
However, at 29, it’s hard to see Cintron being able to beat any of the current champions in either the light middleweight or welterweight division at this stage in his career. It wasn’t that way a few years ago when Cintron was able to pick up the International Boxing Federation title and hold it down for a couple of years against weak opposition.
Back then, the IBF had few talented fighters and Cintron was able to take advantage of the poor opposition. Now, however, the competition has gotten better in both divisions and it’s hard to see what Cintron’s role can be in the sport of boxing at this point other than being a gatekeeper for the young lions like Angulo.
Certainly, Cintron still has a lot of power and is capable of knocking out a fighter here and there, but he’s also just as likely to get knocked out himself as well. Cintron had big problems against B-fighter Jesse Feliciano in November 2007, struggling with him for nine rounds before knocking him out in the 10th.
In Cintron’s next bout, he was destroyed for the second time by Antonio Margarito in April 2008. Cintron was no match for Margarito and was easily beaten for the second time by Margarito. After beating an undersized Lovemore N’dou by a 12-round decision in an IBF welterweight eliminator bout in November 2008, Cintron moved up in weight and had problems in his fight with Sergio Martinez, and needed a bad call from the referee to escape being knocked out in the fight.
Beyond that fight, there are not a whole lot of good possibilities for Cintron that I can see for him beating any of the current champions in the welterweight or light middleweight division. Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, Cory Spinks, Martinez and Sergeii Dzinziruk would be too powerful and/or slick for Cintron to beat.
No doubt Cintron could serve as named opponent for them to defend and look against, but I can’t see Cintron beating any of them at this point. I also see Cintron having problems against the up and coming contenders like Joe Greene, Jesus Soto-Karass and Kell Brook. I’d like to see Cintron fight them, but I can’t see him beating any of them.
As for Saturday night, this is probably going to be a repeat of Margarito’s beat down of Cintron last year. Angulo has too much, throws too many punches and is too young for Cintron to deal with effectively. If Cintron’s chin was a little better and if he had a better work rate, he could stay in there for a little while, but even then I can’t see Cintron making it to the 10th round.