Kermit Cintron wants Sergio Martinez rematch: Will anyone watch?

By Boxing News - 06/30/2020 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Kermit Cintron is interested in facing 45-year-old Sergio Martinez in a long-overdue rematch when he resumes his career shortly. The former two-division world champion Martinez (51-3-2, 28 KOs) hasn’t fought in six years since his 10th round stoppage loss to Miguel Cotto in June 2014.

It’s unlikely that Martinez will want to bother facing Cintron a second time due to how poorly their previous fight was officiated.

The 40-year-old Cintron isn’t in a high position to get a fight against Martinez, as he hasn’t fought since 2018. Moreover, the two-time former welterweight champion Cintron hasn’t won a battle since 2016 in beating an obscure lower-level opponent. Cintron’s boxing career went downhill following his 5th round knockout loss to a young Canelo Alvarez in 2011.

Most of today’s younger boxing fans have probably never heard of Cintron before, and there wouldn’t be much interest from them in seeing Martinez fight him.

In a controversial fight, Cintron (39-6, 30 KOs) and Martinez fought to a 12 round draw in February 2009 in Sunrise, Florida. Many boxing fans that saw the fight had Martinez easily winning the battle.

During the fight, Martinez knocked Cintron down with a hard left hand to the head. The referee Frank Santore Jr then gave Cintron a count and halted the fight. The contest should have been over, but Cintron convinced the referee that he was knocked down from a head-butt.

Surprisingly, the match was allowed to continue. The replay showed that Martinez had indeed knocked Cintron down from a powerful left to the head. Cintron was allowed to keep fighting, and the bout went the distance.

Martinez looked like the far better of the two, but the judges scored it a draw. Afterward, many fans felt that Martinez had been given a raw deal with the blown call by the referee as well as the scoring by the judges.

Perhaps one reason why Martinez chose not to give Cintron a rematch is due to the Puerto Rican fighter losing three fights shortly after against Carlos Molina, Canelo Alvarez, and Paul Williams. Although Martinez lost to Williams as well by a close 12 round decision in December 2009, he avenged the loss by knocking him out cold in the second round in November 2010.

“I see that he is coming back, and I want the opportunity to face him,” said Cintron about Sergio Martinez.” We have some unfinished business from our fight in 2009, and this is the time to do it.

“There were various opinions on that fight. If the fight needs to be in Spain, Argentina, or wherever. My Passport is up-to-date, and I am willing to travel,” said Cintron

Martinez is scheduled to come out of retirement to fight on August 22 against an opponent still to be determined in Torrelavega, Spain. He retired due to a right-knee problem that had taken away his mobility after he suffered the injury in beating Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in September 2012.

For fans that remember that fight, Martinez took the then young Chavez Jr to school in out-boxing him the entire 12 round fight to win a 12 round unanimous decision. However, in the 12th round, Martinez decided to slug with the hulking Chavez Jr, and he was dropped hard by him.

While falling, Martinez injured his right knee. Martinez would later have surgery on the knee. When he returned to the ring seven months later against Martin Murray, Martinez’s surgically repaired right knee looked weak, and he wasn’t able to move around the ring as he’d done before the injury.

Martinez still outworked Murray to win a 12 round decision, but he wasn’t impressive, and knee looked unstable.

“This is a no brainer fight for the promoters, but it is up to Sergio. I am sure he would like to avenge the draw, so let’s make it happen,” said Cintron.

Martinez hasn’t indicated what his endgame is in returning to the ring after being retired for six years. He’ll likely be able to convince any of the big names like Canelo Alvarez or Gennadiy Golovkin to fight him. Martinez has been out of the game for too long, and it wouldn’t be worth it for Canelo or GGG to fight him at this point. If Martinez were able to beat some of the top 160 or 168-lb fighters, then maybe he might have a slim chance of luring Alvarez or Golovkin into fighting him, but it’s completely unrealistic.

As far as Cintron goes, a lot of boxing fans still remember how he fell out of the ring in the fourth round against Paul Williams and was injured in May 2010. A lot of people think Cintron leaped out of the ring to avoid getting beaten up by Williams, who was dominating the fight easily at the time.

Williams won the battle by a fourth-round technical decision when the injured Cintron was unable to continue due to him being hurt from falling out of the ring. In looking at the replay, Cintron appeared to jump out of the ring in the fourth.