By Dan Ambrose: If you want to see some good fights tonight on regular non-PPV HBO, you might want to tune in for the Saul Alvarez vs. Kermit Cintron bout. The fight card includes Adrien Broner vs. Vicente Martin Rodriguez, and a highlight clip of Gary Russell Jr. vs. Heriberto Ruiz in super featherweight action.
You’ll at least get to see two full fights with future HBO stars Alvarez and Broner fighting in different fights. It’s not bad for regular HBO. You likely won’t be seeing these guys on regular non-PPV cable for too much longer, as Alvarez is someone that is expected to be a big star in the near future, and Broner is a smaller version of Floyd Mayweather Jr, and does a lot of the same things that Floyd can do in the ring.
Alvarez defends his WBC junior middleweight title against ring veteran Cintron in what could be an exciting fight if Cintron has anything left. Lately, he’s been kind of disappointing and looking like he may be a bit over the hill. Alvarez is getting the fight with Cintron at the fight time, because this would have been a much harder fight had it taken place five years ago when Cintron was shredding the welterweight division.
But Cintron’s work rate has dropped in his last few fights and he’s a lot more tentative than he used to be. But if Cintron comes to fight tonight, we could see upset. At the very least, it might be an exciting fight.
Broner, 21, is quickly establishing himself as one of the best fighters in the super middleweight division.
If he can stick around at this weight, he should eventually be the best fighter in the division soon. However, he could still put on a few more pounds and move up to lightweight where he could chase bigger fights against the likes of Brandon Rios and Ricky Burns. But that’s in the future. Tonight, Broner has got to prove that he can get past the tough Rodriguez. This may not be an easy fight if Broner gets caught in a war and takes punishment.
Russell Jr. (18-0, 10 KO’s) has amazing hand speed that reminds one of a young Roy Jones Jr. minus the power and foot movement. He’s got some skills, but needs to improve on his power and his ability to move around the ring. He’s slow on his feet and doesn’t hit hard enough for his own good.
However, he’ll do well against the 34-year-old journeyman Ruiz (47-11-2, 29 KO’s) tonight. Ruiz has been stopped three times in the past two years against arguably lesser fighters than Russell Jr. and he’s going to have problems tonight with Russell’s speed. Unfortunately, this fight will only have clips shown of it on HBO, according to Dan Rafael. It’s too bad because it would be nice to see the full fight.
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