Paul Williams-Kermit Cintron close for May 8
by Scott Christ on Feb 20, 2010 12:54 PM EST
in Boxing News Analysis
Email
Print
HBO's May 8 date for Paul Williams is close to being filled with an opponent, as Rick Reeno reports that Kermit Cintron is near a deal to fight Williams on that date. The fight will probably be at 154, but Cintron is willing to fight lower if Williams is serious about moving back to welterweight this year.
Williams (38-1, 27 KO) won two fights last year at 160, dominating Winky Wright in April and winning a very close decision against Sergio Martinez in December. Cintron (32-2-1, 28 KO) had a more up-and-down year, starting poorly with a gift draw against Martinez in February, but then upsetting Alfredo Angulo in May, and capping the year with an easy win over Juliano Ramos in Puerto Rico on October 24.
Williams is definitely the favorite here given his status as a P4P contender, but Cintron's power makes him dangerous. Williams can get sloppy defensively and allow himself to get hit too much, and as a southpaw, is vulnerable to Cintron's right hand. While Cintron has never beaten someone as good as Williams, let alone knocked out someone that good, his KO rate certainly suggests he could, though it doesn't prove it.
It's about as good a fight as Williams was going to get for May 8, what with Kelly Pavlik and Sergio Martinez squaring off on April 17, and there being so few legitimate contenders at 154 or 160 that were going to be approved by HBO. Even if Williams had dropped straight to 147 for this fight, Cintron was still probably the best option, as all of the top welters are busy, too.
No venue has been discussed.
12 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
I don’t either.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Feb 21, 2010 10:27 AM EST up reply actions
RISK-REWARD?
While this is definately a good scrap as is Pavlik-Martinez, had Team P-Will not torpedoed the fight HBO really wanted Pavlik-Williams, by insisting on a 50-50 split, thats the fight we’d be getting. As it stands if Pavlik defeats Martinez, and Bute defeats Miranda, Kelly moves to SM/W to fight Bute with the winner claiming to be the real SM/W Champ in spite of Showtimes tourney winner. Who knows by that time P-Will may be a SM/W too, or he may be an afterthought if he doesn’t get by Cintron, or he may have no big money fight at JM/W, or M/W. So maybe he should have taken the Pavlik fight for a little less, which woulda’ turned out to be a lot more, Ahh the boxing game. Peace!!
It was both their faults
Williams insisted on 50/50 and wouldn’t budge. Pavlik insisted on the same terms and wouldn’t budge. Neither of those stances was reasonable.
Frankly, I think the management of both guys just really don’t want that fight. There just wasn’t anyone else that good available to fight before, and now some alternatives have opened up. I do think they both want the fight eventually, just not yet. After Williams ate so many right hands against Martinez, I think his team thought twice about putting him in there with a huge orthodox puncher without having a bit of a tune up first. That’s why Cintron makes sense – he fights a LOT like Pavlik, just he’s smaller, not as strong, and has a lower workrate. Or in other words, he’s a much less dangerous version of Pavlik. Martinez is also a good tune up for Pavlik. Pavlik hasn’t faced any southpaws in years and he’s never faced a world class one.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
UNLESS
Cintron will bring far less money to the P-Will fight, and CAN beat Paul, he has a damn good KO% of 80 and if he wins there goes Pauls $$$ fight with KP,.. risk-reward. Also Brick what should Team Pavlik done to make this fight happen, Kelly IS the Champ, IS the draw in AC, and IS the fight HBO wanted. I ain;t feelin’ ya’ here my man. The scenario you described is good in a perfect world but this is boxing my man, and there ain’t no script. If Team Paul thought they were on top over KP they should have taken the fight, when you’re the Champ the money will follow, the rematch would’ve brought him even more should have defeated Kelly,…again risk-reward. IMHO. Peace!!
"when you’re the Champ the money will follow"
Tell that to Steve Cunningham.
I think we mostly agree. Williams’ team took a step back from actually wanting a Pavlik fight after what Martinez did to him. Fighting the champ doesn’t help if you think your guy will lose the fight.
Still, Pavlik’s team would have moved on their price if they wanted the fight. He was coming off a bomb of a small PPV where he couldn’t even half fill his home arena. Paul and Martinez eventually sold out their smaller room in AC, and Paul had more buzz behind him after fighting in a FOTY candidate. Pavlik’s stock went down and Paul’s went up. That doesn’t equal offering identical terms, unless you think the other guy is backed into a corner. Paul wasn’t, and his team doesn’t really want Pavlik yet anyway, so he went elsewhere.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
In the long run
team-Williams has to do something about his propensity to eat big shots. I thought Margo (a welterweight not known as a monster puncher, but a accumulation guy) had Williams edging toward the verge in the 11th round of their fight. Martinez is not known as a big puncher but decked & hurt Williams, and then clocked him with clean shots all night long—as did Quintana in their first fight. One hopes that the William’s camp thinking is to improve his defense and he is approaching Cintron as a smaller, less active, and more vulnerable version of Pavlik on who he can test some new wrinkles. If not, neither the Pavlik money nor the Cintron money is going to be enough because Williams, IMO, is not going to be around that long against the bigger boys.
Margo (a welterweight not known as a monster puncher, but a accumulation guy) had Williams edging toward the verge in the 11th round of their fight.
I don’t mean to be argumentative but isn’t this slightly contradictory? If it was the eleventh round then wouldn’t the damage have accumulated?
I agree about William’s chin being dubious. Martinez has a KO rate of 50% which certainly isn’t consistent with how hard he put Williams down. It was a very well thrown punch, but I was still surprised by the effect it had.
I’m not sure that Pavlik will get past Martinez, but if he does I believe that he will find it easy to hurt Williams and knock him out.
"Honey i forgot to duck" - Jack Dempsey
by Drunken cutman on Feb 23, 2010 10:53 AM EST up reply actions
This will be BOMB FEST
This will be a good match
If you always thought what you thought, then you wouldn't think what you knew.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
