By Rob Smith: In a pair of fights where the judges seemed to get it wrong tonight, middleweight Don George (24-3-2, 21 KO’s) fought to a controversial 10 round draw against 35-year-old David Lopez (41-14-1, 23 KO’s) in the main event, and in the co-main event welterweight Kermit Cintron (33-5-2, 28 KO’s) and Adrian Granados (11-2-2, 7 KO’s) fought to a 10 round draw as well at the UIC Pavilion, in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
In the George-Lopez fight, George appeared to do the better work, land the harder shots, and land more punches. However, the judges scored it 97-94 for Lopez, 96-94 for George, and 95-95. George definitely outworked Lopez in rounds 1, 2, 4, 6-10. Lopez fought well in rounds 3 and 5, and that’s about the only rounds you could give him unless you wanted to ignore all the big right hands George was nailing him with.
In the Cintron-Granados fight, Cintron got badly outworked and dominated by Granados. However, the judges scored it 96-94 for Granado, 97-95 for Cintron, and 95-95. Cintron fought well in rounds 4, 7 and 9. The rest of the rounds appeared to be won by Granados. It’s hard to understand what the judges were watching who scored the fight a draw or to Cintron because it seemed like a clear cut win for Granados.
Cintron looked like a mere shell of his former self, as he mostly looked to grab all night long to keep from getting hit by the smaller Granados. Cintron isn’t the fighter he once was, and it’s difficult to imagine him recapturing his former skills at 33. He might want to consider retirement because he fought well enough to lose tonight, and the draw that he got is similar to the gift draw he received in his fight with Sergio Martinez.
