Alvarez vs. Cintron: Kermit about to get knocked out of the top 15

By Boxing News - 10/12/2011 - Comments

Image: Alvarez vs. Cintron: Kermit about to get knocked out of the top 15By Dan Ambrose: Despite two losses in his last three fights, former IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (33-4-1, 28 KO’s) is still barely hanging in the top 15 in the junior middleweight division at the number #14 sport by the WBC.

I expect that to change for the negative on November 26th when the 31-year-old Cintron faces the unbeaten World Boxing Council junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (38-0-1, 28 KO’s) at the Arena VFG, Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, Jalisco, Mexico.

A loss for Cintron in this fight will almost surely knock Cintron off his perch at #14 into the 2nd tier where he perhaps now belongs after back to back defeats to Paul Williams and Carlos Molina.

Cintron has also been defeated by Antonio Margarito twice and should have been beaten by Sergio Martinez in February 2009, but the referee blew a call when Martinez knocked Cintron down with a straight left hand and Cintron complained that the blow was from a headbutt rather than a straight left. It was one of the strangest things you’d ever see, and also so disappointing when the WBC failed to change the results of the fight from a 12 round draw to a knockout afterwards.

Alvarez, 21, defeated Alfonso Gomez by a 6th round stoppage in his 2nd defense last month on September 17th. For Alvarez, it was his second title defense of his WBC belt and his second mismatch. Alvarez appears to be too good for the soft contenders that his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions are setting him up with. They’re trying to take things slowly with him because of his age and they don’t want to throw him in quickly with the best contenders in the division such as Alfredo Angulo, Paul Williams and Vanes Martirosyan. This is perhaps why the veteran Cintron has been picked out from the number #14 sport instead of a more dangerous opponent.

If Alvarez can get by Cintron on November 26th, a possible next fight for Alvarez could be against WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in early next year if Alvarez’s promoter and Top Rank, the promoter for Chavez Jr., can come to an agreement about the money and catcweight for the fight. There’s a lot of money to be made by both fighters in this bout and it might not be there if and when they eventually get beat in the future. This is perhaps why Chavez Jr. and Alvarez will likely be fighting next year rather than two or three years from now. They can’t afford to wait because both are vulnerable. Alvarez looks good enough to eventually be the best fighter in the junior middleweight division if he’s not already.



Comments are closed.