20.04.06 – By Jeff Bastasini: On Wednesday night, welterweight Kermit Cintron (26-1, 24 KO’s) knocked out David Estrada (18-3, 9 KO’s), in the 10th round of an IBF eliminator for the title the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. The fight was action packed from the onset with both fighters throwing huge shots and using little in the way of defense. Cintron landed huge right hand shots in the early going. However, Estrada, to his credit, fired back each time, although without the same devastating power as Cintron possessed.
Cintron, who was completely outclassed a year earlier in losing a 5th round stoppage loss to Antonio Margarito, found Estrada to be much less of an offensive threat. As the fight worse on, the effect of Cintron’s power shots started wearing Estrada down. Finally, in the 10th round, Cintron landed a crushing right hand to the head of Estrada, sending him to the canvas. Bravely, although perhaps not wisely, Estrada rose from the canvas and tried to continue fighting but Cintron immediately pounced on him, landing a storm of unanswered punches, causing the referee to jump in and stop the bout before Cintron could inflict any more punishment.
Over all, it was an impressive punching performance by Cintron, yet the win wasn’t entirely satisfying, since Cintron showed the same slow hand speed and lack of defense as he did in his losing effort to Margarito. Against Estrada, it hardly mattered, though. However, against sharper punchers like Floyd Mayweather Jr., Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley or Zab Judah, I feel that Cintron would be in for a tough time and might end up getting stopped once again. It seems as if the gap between the top welterweight fighters, for example, Mosley, Judah, Mayweather and those below them, seems to be pretty large based on what I’ve seen.