Join Inside Fights for live coverage of the junior middleweight bout between Paul Williams and Kermit Cintron tonight at 9:45 pm ET.
Both men are coming off arguably the biggest wins of their careers. Williams narrowly defeated middleweight champion Sergio Martinez via majority decision in December while Cintron outboxed Alfredo Angulo in May of last year.
Don’t miss any of the action. Follow along punch-for-punch with Inside Fights.
First up will be a replay of Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s dominant win over Shane Mosley last week at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Williams-Cintron should follow about an hour from now.
Jim Lampley asserts that Paul Williams is as high as number 3 on pound-for-pound lists behind only Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. That is Williams’ current ranking on Inside Fights’ rankings.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Shane Mosley Replay
The Mayweather-Mosley replay is under way, with one round completed. After another viewing, it still looks like a Mayweather round. Mosley lands more with the jabs to the body, but Mayweather’s fewer shots are cleaner and a bit more effective.
It’s still wild to see Mayweather not only make an instant recovery from being hurt by Mosley in round two but to come back and completely dominate round three and the rest of the fight. You just don’t see adjustments that big, that fast in fights of this magnitude. He did something similar against Zab Judah in 2006, but it took him four rounds to adjust rather than just one, and Judah has long been considered a frontrunner, unlike Mosley.
For maybe the first time in his career, Mosley seemed legitimately afraid of being hit by an opponent’s punches in this fight. Even after being dropped by Vernon Forrest in 2002, Mosley still kept coming after him and managed to win some rounds late in that fight. Against Mayweather, it was all downhill after round three.
Other than the second round and Mayweather’s overall performance, the next biggest highlight of the fight had to be round eight when they spent a good portion of the round talking to each other. Mosley thought Mayweather was holding too much and let him know it, and Mayweather responded by hitting him with a combination to the head. Mosley was obviously upset with the cheap shot, but Mayweather, not to be outdone, talked right back to him.
Lampley deserves a nod for actually standing up to Emanuel Steward and Larry Merchant as they tried to discredit Mayweather’s performance by citing Mosley’s age and conveniently ignoring that Mosley’s most recent fight was a complete thrashing of Antonio Margarito. Lampley pointed out that most people thought it would be a competitive fight. Very few people in boxing put down, in writing or broadcast, a prediction of a wipeout for Mayweather.
The twelfth round is just finishing up, so Williams-Cintron should be upon us shortly.
Lampley, Steward and Merchant are live at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, talking up Mayweather-Pacquiao as expected. Merchant says the fighters stand to make $30 million each. Merchant says Mayweather should take his steroid suspicion to the Nevada State Athletic Commission and let them deal with it; otherwise, the thought process of fans will be that he doesn’t want the fight. He wants the same commission that failed to catch Mosley on steroids in 2003 to settle the issue. He couldn’t be any more incorrect about this issue, and Lampley lets him know it by saying Mayweather has plenty of support for his stance at the moment.
Lampley asks Steward, who used to train Cintron, how much of a chance he has against Williams tonight. Steward thinks he has a very good chance and that Williams hasn’t fought anyone with Cintron’s punching power. Williams did fight Margarito though, and Steward points that out, saying that’s the style that has caused Cintron the most problems – the pressure puncher. Steward thinks Williams’ consistency in his style plays into his favor tonight.
Paul Williams vs. Kermit Cintron
Williams enters to “Beat It.” Merchant rambles on about why Williams should be called “The Candy Man” rather than “The Punisher” because he apparently keeps candy in his pockets for constant energy.
Dr. Lou Moret is the referee for this one.
Neither man cracked much of a smile during their introductions, so we could be looking at a war. They give a good stare down during Moret’s instructions.
ROUND 1: Cintron is trying to work his jab but pawing with it. He lands a good one that pops Williams’ head back. Williams misses a left and catches a right. Jab to the body by Williams. Williams with a straight left and a right uppercut on Cintron. Williams with a left to the body. Cintron lands a good left hook that brings Williams’ head up. Cintron misses a huge right. Williams has yet to press the issue to Cintron in round one. Cintron lands a right to the head. Williams lands a body shot. Williams lands a right hook but takes a right hand to the head late. Cintron lands another but eats an uppercut that moves him back. A good action round goes to Cintron based on slightly more effective shots.
10-9 Cintron
ROUND 2: They are shooting power shots from a distance, fighting a disciplined fight that Cintron has to like. The crowd actually begins booing midway through round two. Williams misses a big left but lands a right hook. Cintron lands a jab that stands out in a dull stretch. Williams isn’t doing anything until throwing a left into the glove of Cintron. Cintron catches Williams with a right and a body shot near the end of the round, and that’s enough to win it.
10-9 Cintron
ROUND 3: Cintron lands a jab. Williams lands a left to the body. Cintron gets in a body shot of his own. Williams lands a body shot as well. Cintron scores with a straight right to the head. Williams sticks in a jab. Williams looks slow and seems content to box. There are muffled boos throughout the arena getting louder. They came to see Paul Williams, not this guy that showed up. Williams gets in a left hand to the head. Left to the body by Williams. Paul lands a jab but takes a pair of body shots. There’s a pair of body shots by Williams now. Paul lands a straight left on Cintron against the ropes. Cintron lands a left hook, but Williams comes after him to end the round. That one goes to Williams.
10-9 Williams
ROUND 4: Williams lands a left but takes a left hook. They trade big right hands, Cintron’s slamming Williams’ head back. He shakes it off but takes another right from Cintron. They tangle, and Paul goes down, before Cintron goes flying right through the ropes and all the way down to the floor!
Moret is watching Cintron on the floor, and we haven’t seen anything like this really since Bernard Hopkins was pushed out of the ring by Mills Lane in 1998. Cintron apparently landed on the table beside the apron but is now on the floor motioning toward his rib as doctors examine him.
Cintron had grabbed Williams around the head, then Williams lost his footing and went down in the ropes. Cintron apparently tripped over Paul’s leg and went through the ropes, onto the table, hitting his neck on the television monitor before rolling all the way down to the floor.
Kermit is on his side on the floor as a stretcher is being brought out. Williams is in his corner being covered up with a towel to stay warm. Cintron or the medical personnel have decided that Kermit will not continue, and they are going to get him out of there.
Moret has let everyone know that Cintron won’t be able to continue. Cintron is actually having a neckbrace put on, and he has not moved from the position he landed in. Now they roll him onto the stretcher, though he is talking and blinking. He is moving all of his limbs, so hopefully this is not a spinal injury.
So much for either man making a statement on this night.
Apparently, in the state of California, they go the judges’ scorecards after three rounds, so this is not a no contest/technical draw. There will be a winner, and we’ll find out who it is shortly. Williams’ failure to show up in the early rounds has cost him the fight on Inside Fights’ card, though Harold Lederman has him up two rounds to one.
Inside Fights has scored it 39-37 for Cintron. The fourth round must be scored, and Cintron landed the bigger shots in that one as brief as it was.
The judges score it 39-37 and 40-36 for Williams and 40-36 for Cintron.
Williams wins by split technical decision.
Cintron covers his face with his gloves after hearing the decision as he is stretchered out. He was demanding to hear the decision before leaving, but now he probably regrets that.
Merchant asks Williams’ thoughts, and Williams says he didn’t want to win it that way. Williams is at a loss for words and says he hopes Cintron wasn’t hurt too badly. Merchant says Cintron wanted to continue but that the doctors told him no. Merchant asks why it took Williams so long to heat up. Paul says it was part of his game plan to lay back and box to take Cintron out of his rhythm. He says the fight was starting to pick up and he was starting to let his hands go and get into his usual rhythm. Merchant asks how unsatisfying it is for Williams since he wanted to put on a big show. Paul says he feels the fans didn’t get their money’s worth and that he wanted Cintron to get hurt from his punches if anything. Williams says he’s known for lighting it up early and hopes fans will still watch him because this was part of his game plan. Williams says he wants Mayweather first because he’s at the top, then Pacquiao. He says he also wants Middleweight Champion Sergio Martinez.
Steward says it was going to be a good fight as it went on because Williams realized he had to pick it up. He thinks it was short-circuited just when it was going to be good. Nobody is mentioning a rematch with Cintron, as if it was a foregone conclusion that Williams would have won. Lampley points out that Williams and Mayweather are both advised by Al Haymon, who refuses to comment on whether they would fight each other. Lampley says Williams wants to fight at 147 pounds, but the question is whether anyone will want to fight him. Lampley says if he fights junior middleweight and middleweights, other welterweights will use that as an excuse and say Williams doesn’t belong in the ring against smaller men. Good point.
Merchant says Kelly Pavlik has turned down his rematch clause with Martinez, who is in the crowd signing autographs. Merchant says Pavlik will never fight at middleweight again because he can’t make the weight healthily. Merchant mentions that Margarito is currently fighting in Mexico and that he knocked Martinez out ten years ago. Somehow, Merchant gets onto the subject of Tim Bradley fighting Pacquiao or Mayweather. He manages to bring it back to tonight saying, “Stuff happens.”
What a bizarre program. In a matchup that looks set up to be a war on paper, Williams doesn’t show up to fight and claims it was part of his game plan, despite the fact that those who have had most success against Cintron blitzed him with offense, which is Williams’ forte. Then Williams appears to be losing a fight neither man is making a real effort to win but wins on the cards on a decision that wouldn’t have gone to the cards pretty much anywhere outside of California after a “freak” accident ending that sees Cintron fall out of the ring and ask to continue only to be denied by doctors.
Thanks for joining Inside Fights for this shocking fight. Stay tuned in the coming days for more developments on Cintron’s condition and where Williams goes from here.
