BE's look back on HBO's Broadcast: Antonio Margarito VS Kermit Cintron II

HBO's Broadcast: Antonio Margarito VS Kermit Cintron II

Date: April, 12 2008
Place: Boardwalk Hall - Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA

Division: Welterweight for the IBF world title held by Kermit Cintron

Rounds Scheduled: 12

Commentators: Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant

Having recently re-aired on HBO, I thought a look back on this fight would be a timely celebration of the grit and toughness of our current welterweight champion, Antonio Margarito-The Tijuana Tornado. He has just earned the respect of the broader boxing community by slowly breaking down the superior boxing champion Miguel Cotto to top the division.

The set up:

The Fighters:

Antonio Margarito:

Record: 35-5 with 25 kayos

Residence/Hometown: Tijuana, Mexico

Weight: 146.5 lbs

Height: 5'11

Age: 30

*After dispatching Sebastian Lujan with one of the most gruesome injuries I've ever seen which literally saw Lujan's ear falling apart from swelling, Margarito went on to immediately fight Kermit Cintron. In this first match-up, Cintron, the undefeated knockout artist was dealt his first loss, as Margarito walked casually through Kermit's best punches. As a respected heavy hitter but not a great boxer, Cintron's biggest weapon was completely blunted by Margarito's iron chin. Cintron was cut and knocked down four times, losing by TKO in the fifth. Margarito also got a decision in a close fight over another top notch opponent named Joshua Clottey. Then, Margarito competitively lost his title to Paul Williams, the freakishly built monster of the welterweight division.

An approximately 6'2, 32-0 fighter who also couldn't knock Margarito out and was very evenly matched against him. Margarito rightly blamed himself for starting far too slowly, a pattern that has hurt him though due to his stronger-by-the-round nature, rarely so much. He said he wouldn't make that mistake again and easily destroyed the solid Golden Johnson in one round, finding him with every conceivable punch, including his wicked left uppercut and taking a minor title from him, to prove he deserved to be at the top of the heap. Trying to get back into good enough graces in the boxing world to receive a shot against Miguel Cotto, Tony Margarito got back into the ring with the more mature Kermit Cintron.

Kermit Cintron:

Record: 29-1-0 with 27 kayos

Height: 5'11

Weight: 146.5

Age: 28

Residence/Hometown: Carolinas, Puerto Rico

*While Margarito sought to redeem his loss to Williams and near deal to fight Miguel Cotto, Cintron sought to redeem himself for his only loss to Margarito. Kermit is such a knockout artist that he only failed to knockout three of his opponents. Including Jesus Felipe Valverde and Antonio Margarito, who to my knowledge have thus far, never been knocked out and an early career six-rounder with Leon Pearson. He comes in as the IBF welterweight world titleholder for his third defense. Cintron is at this point being trained by the great, great Emanuel Steward.

BE'S round by round Breakdown and Scoring:

Our referee: Earl Brown


Round 1: Even: Margarito looks to be starting well, considering his tendency not to. They trade good hard shots with each other, wasting no time. Margarito is quite the machine as he shows zero respect for Kermit Cintron's punching power. They are evenly bashing each other. These are two large, heavy hitting welterweights. I call it an even round though it looks immediately like the tale of the fight is cemented. Cintron doesn't want to box smartly. Instead, he wants to trade and only one man in this ring can take the kind of trading that they're displaying and it's not Cintron.

Round 2: for Margarito: The first minute is owned by Cintron who lands at will. Margarito wakes up and starts getting extremely close to Cintron and fighting much better on the inside all over Cintron's head and body. As is Margarito's nature, he takes advantage of every time Cintron crouches too much by nailing him with an uppercut. Never crouch in front of Margarito like this. Cintron's inability to simply step back and fight from outside is killing him in the last two-thirds of the round with Margarito staying extremely close to him. Cintron gets very roughed up despite a fast start for him in the round and a slow one for Tony.

Round 3: for Margarito: Emanuel Steward tries to get Cintron to think about fighting smart from the outside, despite the fact that Jim Lampley cites his urging to also stop backing up. Margarito's inside game has resulted in tremendous pressure to Kermit's body. Larry Merchant points out that there is a slight cut over the left eye of Margarito now. Keep in mind, Tony can cut but the legend of his near invincibility comes from the fact that although he can bleed, his equilibrium never seems to be affected; no matter how accurately, quickly and powerfully you can nail him. Margarito reportedly threw over a hundred and thirty punches in the last round. Cintron starts this round trying to fight well from the outside but Tony actually stays with him from this distance too. Cintron lands some big, big shots on Tony. Tony doesn't do anything but come forward. Larry Merchant speaks the truth in that Cintron has a harder punch but Margarito has a harder chin. Though, Margarito is a good puncher and Cintron has a good chin, it's easy to see that Larry is right. Cintron is ducking down extremely far and Margarito having only one speed-full speed ahead- isn't afraid to keep throwing, even if they land on the back of Cintron's head.

As opposed to blatant, dirty rabbit punching, Cintron, I feel is at fault here. I'm reminded of a Western with Lou Gossett, Jr., which I think was called El Diablo. In it, they spoke a line to the effect of one man saying in moral disgust ''You shot a man in the back?'' and the other man saying simply, ''His back was to me.''

Referee, Earl Brown, warns Tony about an obvious punch to the back of the head. Cintron complains to the ref and Margarito keeps punching while he does it. When will fighters learn? If the ref sees it, they call it. If they don't, you better keep your mouth shut and your defenses up. I think Larry Merchant is with me on the back of the head business, giving Margarito a pass. Larry actually says ''That is not a foul.''

While Manny tries to tell Kermit that Margarito is getting tired, I think Cintron is the one tiring from the crushing body punches that Margarito has landed.

Round 4: for Margarito: Cintron is trying so hard to meet Margarito punch for punch and he is paying for it. Lampley perfectly states what Margarito is. ''A high class brawler...a brawler with skill.'' is what he says about Antonio. I couldn't agree more. He's a little slow and he's got his faults but his offensive intelligence is very high. He likes to brawl, and can get away with it. But HOW he brawls shows you that he is great in being able to find the right shots. Though Cintron finds some big shots, he spends most of his time in this round being unable to get away from Tony's consistent pressure. Margarito will do it all night with his incomparable stamina.

Round 5: for Margarito: Cintron lands a bomb of a right hand on Margarito. Margarito snaps an uncharacteristically quick jab that catches Cintron who is coming in with a good right that gets Margarito moving away a bit. Still a landing shot though. Margarito grins at Cintron. It looks like a sportsmanly grin as if to say ''I recognize that as a good punch. We're fighting.'' They trade huge right hands. Cintron keeps getting caught on the back of the head as he is being assaulted in every direction. It's hard to believe Margarito only has two arms considering how many angles Cintron is getting hit from.

It's still, as I maintain, Cintron's fault for being caught on the back of the head. It's his ridiculous ducking that allows this. You can't win a fight bent over. You can expect to get (insert expletive here) for bending over like that, but not to win a fight. And, you can't expect the other fighter to stop punching because you want a break-by bending over. The ref warns Tony as Cintron complains by gesturing to the back of his head. You can see Margarito edging up to crack him in the middle of his complaining. You can tell that Kermit is reaching his breaking point from the pressure. Kermit Cintron's right eye is cut now, like Margarito's left. They're both bleeding but it's Margarito who looks unphased and Cintron who looks like the beaten man. ''I don't know why, when a fighter bends down and he gets hit on top of the head, it should be a foul.'' says Larry Merchant, echoing my sentiments exactly.

Kermit dips way down again but is caught with only legal punches. You get the sense that he's almost gone. Larry sticks to his guns as Jim Lampley starts talking about how dangerous being hit on the brain stem is. Larry says, basically that Kermit's movement is unprofessional. I agree.

Round 6: for Margarito: ''Kermit, he takes a good punch. You've got to try to box him.'' says Emanuel Steward. If Cintron can't understand that obvious and understated idea by now, he never will. Finally working a good jab, which of course, is fundamental, Kermit attempts to follow his trainer's advice at the beginning of this round. As Cintron tries to get the referee to watch Margarito more closely, Larry says ''It's like he's lobbying the referee every time it gets a little too rough in there for him.'' Accurate observation. Finally, after a right to Cintron's temple, Margarito puts Cintron down on the fabled liver shot that can immobilize any opponent if done right. This was done right. Cintron is counted out. A round six KO, officially for Antonio Margarito. Margarito seemed highly engaged by the ref's count, perhaps taunting Cintron to get up so he could batter him some more. Margarito likes to mix it up. You've got to give him that.

BE's Bottom Line: Simply put, Kermit didn't want to box, which was the only way he could have survived. He didn't want to work the jab and set up one-twos. He wanted to trade with a man who already proved he could tear him up and take his best shots. He showed great heart and put on a hell of a fight but ultimately, not a smart one. I'd say he was his own worst enemy in there but we both know with that pressure, he was only capable of being is second worst enemy. Could he have won if he'd boxed more instead of brawl? I doubt that. Considering Margarito's monumentally better opposition up to this point, I don't think Cintron could have pulled it off with any kind of a boxing lesson.

After the fight:

Kermit Cintron:

Kermit has had no fight since being KO'd by Margarito and I don't believe he's scheduled to either just yet. As it stands, this means the only man he's ever lost too is Antonio. He'd still be great opposition for almost any other top welterweight but not Antonio Margarito.

Antonio Margarito: After Williams' loss to Miguel Cotto's old foe, Carlos Quintana, only Margarito stood the rightful challenger for Cotto's belt. As I predicted, though Cotto is a superior boxer with more skill, speed, jabbing ability and defense, he would fall to the pressure of Margarito like so many others. Cotto out-boxed Margarito easily for the first six rounds but taking few flush shots and giving all the best ones, he was being damaged far more anyway. The second half of the fight wore down Cotto, the far smaller in height and width to the point that he was taking knees just to survive. Cotto's corner stopped it when it became clear that the only thing to be gained was more punishment. Antonio Margarito is now the man, owning the welterweight division but owing two fighters a shot without question, in my mind. Joshua Clottey and Paul Williams. It looks like Clottey comes first.

I hope you've enjoyed BE's look back on Margarito VS Cintron II. Comments or God forbid, corrections can be taken right to the comments section below the post.