Canelo Alvarez Stops Kermit Cintron
by Trey Pollard
On a night when a handful of boxing’s better prospects sprinted to early knockouts, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s 5th-round TKO of Kermit Cintron on Saturday was a marathon by comparison. The headliner on an HBO card populated by quick, blistering stoppages, the fight offered the right context to make the 21-year old Alvarez look even somewhat mature, as he patiently tested Cintron’s power and psyche before cruising to victory over one of his toughest opponents yet.
While Gary Russell Jr and Adrien Broner provided the explosiveness with early-round knockouts on the undercard, it was Alvarez (39-0-1) who took a disciplined approach in spite of the rowdy home crowd that probably preferred otherwise. With a Mexico City bullring as the venue, bloodlust would be only appropriate. But even against an opponent as criticized as Cintron (33-5-1), Alvarez avoided big risks that could create opportunities for his opponent and expose vulnerabilities for himself.
Initially, that meant three rounds of solid boxing from Alvarez, moving often, and throwing sparingly but effectively enough to move Cintron backwards with his power. Throughout, his jabs and two-punch combinations brought him in close to test the waters and check on what Cintron had to offer.
And it wasn’t much.
The ex-champion from Puerto Rico’s reputation was built on his explosive power, which served as “the eraser” that could change the pace of any fight – if not end it in Cintron’s favor. But now that power seems to have evaporated. Tonight, Cintron seemed to start the fight knowing that – and Alvarez realized it soon enough.
While Cintron was game and stayed busy in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, it was mostly with a meaningless jab that was fooling nobody and certainly wasn’t stopping Alvarez. The violent power was absent along with the Cintron of 2003. Instead, his once-feared right hand was reduced to an occassional slap that did little to bother his opponent. And with his most effective weapon again out-of-commission, the easy prophecies of Cintron’s demise proved to be true.
After three rounds worth of evidence that his opponent could not effectively damage him, Alvarez took more chances in the 4th round, doubling up on his punches and expanding his combinations to the body and head. With one minute to go in the round, Cintron’s loss of power was made totally clear as Alvarez breezily walked through a flush right hand to land a succession of four of his own devastating right hooks to Cintron’s temple, sending him to a knee.
It was the beginning of an end that was only prolonged because of procedure. Cintron woozily stumbled to his feet at the count of nine, in very serious trouble and failing to respond to the referee’s inquiries. Whether the fight should have continued or not is debatable, but the referee launched Cintron back into a fight he barely seemed to want to rejoin. 30 seconds later, after hurling a few punches and demonstrating that his balance was seriously impacted, Cintron slumped on the ropes, saved by the bell but essentially done for the night.
Whatever reservations Alvarez had remaining about engaging were gone in the fifth, when it became plainly clear that the earlier knockdown punches destroyed either Cintron’s equilibrium or his desire to continue. With Cintron throwing punches on survival instinct while stumbling around the ring with his hands at his side, Alvarez fired at will.
Canelo has benefitted from some premature TKO calls in the past, but Cintron needed out of this fight well before it was actually stopped. The straight right that rocked Cintron’s head sharply enough to get the referee’s attention was a merciful end to the night with one minute remaining in the fifth round.
Ultimately, of course, the fight was not about Cintron, but about asking and answering questions of Alvarez as he continues his rapid rise to stardom.
There is a tendency to discuss the most-hyped young boxers for what they are not, comparing them to past greats and building arguments as to why the newcomers don’t deserve similar praise, opportunity, and money. As he builds his record, Alvarez has been in his fair share of those conversations. The mountain of publicity he’s received in the U.S. And at home in Mexico has been particularly shadowed by criticism that he’s sticking to soft opponents. Picking an aging, fragile, and erratic Cintron for this fight could certainly bolster those claims.
Alvarez has stepped up slowly so it’s hard to really track his progress without seeing a dramatic increase in the quality of opposition. But a 21-year old doesn’t get to his position without ability and talent, and he seized the opportunity tonight to showcase many of his better qualities against his toughest opponent yet – all without raising any new red flags.
The newspapers and blogs may have been saying all along that Kermit was done before he started, but Canelo was the one whose health was on the line. His performance against Cintron proved he could do that fact-checking himself in the ring, dutifully paying respects to the potential of Cintron by not throwing caution to the wind in the name of a quick knockout.
Instead, he demonstrated a sense of discipline and strategy that sometimes can only be taught to fighters through losses. Whether by design or by intuition, the fact that is already present in a 21-year old making his way through the ranks is a sign he could live up to the overhwhelming hype. Adding in his speed, power, and ballooning fan base and he has the potential to be a leading figure in the middleweight divisions for years to come.
Still, it remains to be seen if the patience he has shown in the ring can be matched outside as well. While he’s slowly crawled through the division ranks to reach gatekeepers like Lovemore N'Dou and Cintron, tonight he also called out the man at the top of the heap - Floyd Mayweather, Jr. - for what would be a step-up sure to test every ounce of Alvarez’s young abilities.