CARSON, CALIFORNIA — After the most unusual of endings, Paul Williams was declared the technical decision victor over Kermit Cintron due to an injury before the end of four rounds in the HBO World Championship Boxing main event at the Home Depot Center.
Williams (39-1, 27 KOs) of Augusta, Georgia now has a win over Cintron (32-3-1, 28 KOs) of Houston, Texas on his record, but even he is not happy with how it got there. Both fighters got their licks in to end a round one that started out slow, as both looked to have some nervous energy. The action began to heat up in round two. Cintron, 154, caught Williams, 152 ½, with two good right hands in an exchange early in the round. Later in the round, Cintron caught Williams over swinging again with another solid counter.
Round three offered little action, as Williams refused to play into Cintron’s apparent plan of playing the counter puncher. Things changed in round four, as Cintron landed a clean right that woke up Williams and the crowd. Williams quickly responded with a head-snapping shot. For a brief moment, it looked as though the fight may turn from a boxing match to a slugfest. Shortly after a heated exchange, Williams lost his footing and grabbed onto Cintron a bit as he fell to the canvas. As Williams went down, the momentum toppled Cintron through the ropes, on to a table and eventually down to the hard floor.
In moments it was clear that Cintron was injured, but it was unclear how bad the injury might be. Cintron remained in the same position that he fell for some time, as a ringside physician watched over him. According to sources on the side of the ring that he fell, Cintron told the ringside physician Paul Wallace that he was able to fight on, but it was the decision of the doctor to not allow him to continue.
Most ringside in press row assumed the fight would be declared a no contest. However, in the state of California, the start of the fourth round makes the fight official and thus the scores were read. One judge had the fight a shutout for Cintron, 40-36. The other two scored the fight for Williams, 40-36 and 39-37 respectively. Ring announcer Michael Buffer read the scores as Cintron, protesting with his gloved fists, was carried out on a stretcher.
Not only did most ringside assume that fight would be ruled a no contest before the decision was announced, so did Cintron’s promoter. “That rule is ridiculous, it was three rounds,” said Lou DiBella. “That is not a fight. How do you call a fight after three rounds?” Cintron’s trainer Ronnie Shields told the press that he had objected to using the California rules instead of the generally used ABC rules prior to the fight.
“I don’t know what to say,” said Williams after the fight. “It’s a strange way to get a win and I’ll try to get a better one next time.” Just as there was before the fight started, there should be many options for both fighters, including the obvious one – a rematch. Cintron entered the ring as the WBO #2/IBF #3/WBC #3 ranked light middleweight, and his promoter seems to want the rematch. “That should have been a no contest, and it should happen again,” said DiBella at the post-fight press conference.
Williams, WBC #3 middleweight and the WBO #1/IBF #5 ranked 154-pounder, could go the rematch route, but there are other fights out there for him as well. Williams’ promoter Dan Goossen seemed less inclined to make a Cintron rematch right of the bat. “There was nothing that happened in that ring that was compelling enough that would lead me to believe that we want to see the fight again,” claimed Goossen. Lou DiBella vehemently disagreed with Goossen’s assessment of the potential rematch. While Goossen would go onto say Cintron is always a possibility for Williams, it looks as though he has his eyes set on bigger fish.
As he mentioned in the build-up to Saturday’s fight, Goossen made mention of plans to see if the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight is made or not. “If a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight doesn’t get made, then obviously we will be standing there and hopefully we would be one of the fighters to take that place,” said Goossen, who added Williams will not sit and wait on the shelf as talks for that superfight do or do not resume.
Styles make fights, and sometimes styles make dull fights. In what looked to be an attractive super featherweight scrap on paper and turned out to be a lackluster bout, Argenis Mendez claimed the vacant USBA Super Featherweight title with a majority decision over Martin Honorio.
Mendez (16-1, 9 KOs) of Brooklyn, New York by way of San Juan de la Maguana, Dominican Republic proved to be an elusive target for the forward-moving Martin Honorio (28-4-1, 14 KOs) of Bell, California by way of Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. Honorio, 130, took the fight to Mendez, 130, in the opening round and appeared to be ahead after two rounds.
Mendez, the WBA #10 ranked super featherweight, scored well with hard body shots in round three and the fight began to turn. As the fight went on, Mendez stood his ground less and less, picking his shots and moving out of range. Honorio, the WBO #3 ranked lightweight and IBF #6 ranked 130-pounder, did not display the same boxing skills that led him to a win over John Molina Jr. last year. Too often, Honorio found himself chasing Mendez instead of effectively cutting off the ring.
While he did not exact any sort of dominance in the bout, Mendez did enough to get the nod on two of the judges’ scorecards 116-112. The third official scorer had it even, 114-114. With the win, Mendez may have earned a better ranking, but it is unlikely he gained many fans ringside.
Former amateur standout Walter Sarnoi (6-0, 2 KOs) of Monterey Park, California boxed his way to a four-round majority decision win over Adrian Aleman (6-7-3, 4 KOs) of Cathedral City, California. Sarnoi, 123, was the naturally bigger man, but decided to box and move rather than put his size advantage to use. Aleman, 123, went rounds as usual, but was unable to get much done in the fight. One judge found two rounds to give to Aleman, to make the even score of 38-38. The other two judges scored the fight 40-36, 39-37.
Stan Martyniouk (9-0, 1 KO) of Sacramento, California rebounded from a flash knockdown in the first round to pull out a six-round split decision over Brian Ramirez (5-3, 3 KOs) of Los Angeles, California. Ramirez, 133, charged out of his corner to open the fight, backing Martyniouk, 133, to the ropes. As the round progressed, Martyniouk settled into a boxing rhythm. Just before the bell to end the round, Ramirez caught Martyniouk with a left uppercut to score the knockdown.
Martyniouk, who did not appear to be hurt from the knockdown, began round two with a sense of urgency, as he pressed the fight. As the fight progressed, the rounds were competitive, but it was Martyniouk that was able to maintain his punching power, while Ramirez’ pace slowed. Martyniouk took the fight after a decisive sixth round which the Sacramento resident swept on all three judges’ cards. Two judges scored the bout 57-56 for Martyniouk, with the lone dissenting judge scoring it 57-56 the other way. Martyniouk hopes to return to the ring June 19th at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California.
Michael Ruiz Jr. (2-0, 1 KO) of Fresno, California blew away Jose Pacheco (2-13-6) of Cudahy, California in the second round of a scheduled four. Ruiz, 118, downed Pacheco, 122, with a straight right hand early in the second. Pacheco rose to his feet, but was clearly not the same. Moments later, a brutal right hook dropped Pacheco hard, prompting referee David Denkin to immediately call a halt to the bout without need for a count. Official time of the stoppage was 1:37 of the second. Ruiz is slated to return to the ring June 19th at the McDermont Field House in Lindsay, California.
Unbeaten Jeremiah Wiggins (8-0-1, 3 KOs) of Newport News, Virginia scored a unanimous decision win over game free-swinger Juan Carlos Diaz (0-3) of Ciudad Neza, Estada de Mexico, Mexico. Wiggins, 152 ½, showed his superior boxing skills in the first, but found himself slugging it out in some heated exchanges by the second round. Diaz, 153 ½, stood in and took some hard shots, but landed some of his own. The underpowered Diaz was simply out of his league with the more skilled Wiggins. In the end, two judges scored the bout 59-55 and the third 60-54 all for Wiggins.
After less than two one-sided rounds, Mike Dallas Jr. (14-0-1, 5 KOs) of Bakersfield, California was declared victorious over journeyman Daniel Gonzalez (9-28-2, 3 KOs) of Billings, Montana. Dallas, 149 ½, was just too much of everything, speed and power, for Gonzalez, 151. With no reason for the mismatch to continue, referee David Denkin saw fit to call halt to the bout at 2:03 of the second round before Gonzalez could absorb any more punishment.
Before the card, Goossen Tutor Promotions announced the signing of WBA Light Heavyweight Champion Beibut Shumenov, who is slated to defend his title sometime in July against mandatory challenger Vyacheslav Uzelkov.
Photos by Jan Sanders/Goossen Tutor Promotions
Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at [email protected].
