Boxing News Boxing News
Much as fellow “Contender” TV series alum Peter Manfredo was diced and sliced by super middleweight world champion Joe Calzaghe last year, welterweight Alfonso Gomez was shown the door in cursory fashion by WBA Champion Miguel Cotto last night at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ, while former WBO Welter boss Antonio Margarito once again proved that he has Kermit Cintron’s number after KO’ing the IBF Champ in six rounds during a rematch that was supposed to display Cintron’s marked improvement.
Bouyed by recent wins over withered former top light welters Arturo Gatti and Ben Tackie, Gomez had expressed great confidence leading up to the title challenge of Cotto but once the bell rang, was shown to be lacking in all the requirements to defeat a reigning world champion except toughness.
Forward marched the seemingly much larger Gomez, but the 27 year old Los Angeles man was unable to put a scratch on Cotto, who took the opportunity to paint a body punching masterpiece on the canvas of Gomez’s midsection.
Down went Gomez to the floor in rounds two, three and five but still he bravely came forward into the threshing machine of Cotto’s hurtful combinations. After the fifth round, the one sided shelling was stopped by the attending ringside physician and Cotto was declared to have retained his WBA crown for the fourth time, improving to a stellar 32-0 (26).
Big-hearted Gomez drops to 18-4-2 (8) as his four bout win streak is snapped.
The other world title fight on the bill was a rematch between IBF Welter king Kermit Cintron and ex-WBO titlist Antonio Margarito, who had destroyed Cintron three years ago in five frames.
Since that time, Cintron had been under the watchful eye of star trainer Emanuel Steward and had steamed to five straight victories, capturing the vacant IBF belt in the process while Margarito had a close call against Joshua Clottey before being dethroned by Paul Williams last July.
On the strength of his resurgence under Steward, Cintron was tipped by many to gain revenge over Margarito in this rematch but the Tijuana based Mexican veteran had other ideas.
Cintron started the bout well but once again made the tactical error of standing in front of the iron-chinned Margarito. Both fighters landed well but Margarito managed to not only absorb the much vaunted power punches of Cintron, but threw many more big shots and began to unhinge the champion.
In each round it seemed that Cintron crumpled more and more under the punishment that he was taking while Margarito simply picked up steam. By the sixth, Cintron knew his only bailout could come from nailing Margarito with huge shots but the former WBO titlist crippled the Pennsylvania man with a massive right hand followed by a spearing left to the body that left Cintron writing on the canvas for a KO loss.
Margarito annexes the IBF welterweight title and sees his record to 36-5 (26) while setting up a lucrative potential unification bout with Cotto this coming July. Cintron falls to 29-2 (27).
