BAD 11/26: Saul Alvarez vs. Kermit Cintron & Adrien Broner vs. Vicente Rodriguez

In the only really notable boxing event of the post-Thanksgiving weekend, HBO brings us a split-site edition of Boxing After Dark.


Originally this was to be a triple-header with the following lineup:

Gary Russell Jr. vs. Dat Nguyen, 10 rounds @ featherweight

Adrien Broner vs. Vicente Martin Rodriguez, 12 rounds @ super featherweight

(^ both in Broner's home town of Cincinnati)

Saul Alvarez vs. Kermit Cintron, 12 rounds @ junior middleweight

(^ in Mexico City)


Nguyen pulled out and Russell is now facing a replacement but will not be televised. BAD is now a doubleheader, with the two championship bouts. One broadcast team (consisting of some combination of Papa, Lampley, Kellerman, Merchant, Steward and/or Jones) will be in Cincinnati and another in Mexico City - each pulling single fight duty.

In a snub that typifies their stance on Nobuhiro Ishida, HBO had no original plans to air his 10-rounder against rugged fringe contender Jose Luiz Cruz on the Mexico City undercard...and still hasn't promoted the match to air on the TV program in light of the featherweight 10-rounder in Cincinnati falling through and created a perfect spot for it. :-( HBO really doesn't like Ishida. They'll never forgive him for icing Kirkland.



Mexico City promises the more competitive of the two contests on paper.

Cintron was once very well regarded as a welterweight boxer-puncher but has fallen from grace since moving up to 154 lbs and displaying what many perceive as a weak mentality (evident in his response to two career beatings at the hands of Antonio Margarito, as well as in an extremely controversial draw with Sergio Martinez, a bizarre apparent quit job against Paul Williams when the going got tough despite having done well early, and two very lackluster performances in a row against Carlos Molina and Antwone Smith - the latter of which he ought to have lost IMO). His problems and possible excuses for not living up to his potential are manifold - but hopping from one trainer to the next hasn't helped. Working with Ronnie Shields has yet to produce very impressive results despite the highly visible turnaround win against Smith on ESPN2.

The up and coming fan favorite Alvarez has been staying undefeated and rarely losing a round, but somehow still drawing criticism and failing to consistently impress of late. He was coming off two prolonged sparring sessions with over-matched and outsized British opponents who many felt shouldn't have lasted half the schedule - and both had the relative high stakes of a "world title" on the line. He was seeming a bit more human and less fearsome heading into his HBO PPV title defense against Alfonso Gomez than he had previously with his reputation of steam-rolling through and stopping the virtually unstoppable (like Jose Cotto and Carlos Baldomir). Shockingly, Alvarez looked lost and toothless for a few rounds and seemingly let the smaller man walk him down and have his way before flipping a switch and overwhelming Gomez in no time.


Up in Cincinnati, things look a bit more one-sided in favor of the hometown hero.

Broner had been generating a lot of buzz prior to his HBO debut against the Raramuri Warrior, Daniel Ponce De Leon (on the undercard of one of Alvarez's sparring sessions with a tougher-than-expected itty bitty Brit). Broner lost some of his luster with his extremely negative performance as DPDL seemed to cow him with constant pressure and land the better shots overall through ten rounds, only to lose a disputed decision with one revolting scorecard from Tony Crebs giving Broner all but one round. "The Problem" managed to find a solution to his hemorrhaging fan base a mere three months later when he demolished the lightly regarded but well-known Jason Litzau in a stunning three-minute blitzkrieg after "The American Boy" had overachieved and become ranked with a few good victories. All of a sudden, *POOF* - the Ponce De Leon fiasco was forgotten and buried and proclamations of Broner being a "G" were ringing throughout the boxing community.

Rodriguez boasts a superficially decent record, but it's quite padded. All of his wins have come in his native Argentina, and were against similarly travel-averse fighters of dubious merit even on the domestic level - most of whom have losing records, and only half of whom he's managed to stop. The one time he left the country, he lost to Cool Willie Kickett in Australia. Kickett was stomped and knocked out by Broner back a year later. Only managing a draw with journeyman Claudio Rosendo Tapia doesn't speak to much in the way of skill, and obviously his record doesn't suggest Ponce De Leon-like strength and power. It is hard to figure how Rodriguez can score the upset, especially in Ohio surrounded by several thousand Problem Children. He's slow, flat-footed, and pushes his punches. Unless he's got an amazing chin, he's probably being brought in to suffer his first knockout loss in a showcase for Broner.



The most recent outings of each of the co-feature's principals:

Saul "Canelo" Alvarez TKO6 Alfonso Gomez
[yt]wcizYCu1EvE[/yt]

Kermit Cintron UD10 Antwone Smith
[yt]Y7Kw4NkAeP4[/yt]


Adrien "The Problem" Broner KO1 Jason Litzau
[yt]y7jei1QbcoE[/yt]

Vicente Martin "El Mono" Rodriguez UD8 Mario Martinez
[yt]iA1jGiSTsN8[/yt]


The card airs at 10:30pm EST. Alvarez vs. Cintron will be the main event and therefore after Broner vs. Rodriguez, most likely starting some time between 11:30pm and midnight EST.

 

Oh so glad I went to the trouble just to have this fall back a couple of pages with no reply. :!:


I guess everybody is taking the rest of November off as boxing fans? Maybe the rest of 2011 if Margarito doesn't get licensed?

 

If Broner and/or Alvarez score (or suffer) very quick knockouts, we could get Ishida-Cruz and/or Russell-Belmontes as filler. :thumbsup

...or HBO will just have their commentary teams flap their gums for twenty minutes and then sign off...

 

It isn't common, no - but if we get like a KO1 and then a TKO1/2/3 or so (and that chain of events really isn't too implausible here ) - wtf are they going to do? Leave us high and dry with seven minutes of in-ring action in a broadcast scheduled for 135"?

I believe that the only reason so much of Dewey Bozella's pro debut wound up being shown is because of the unexpectedly quick & bizarre ending to Dawson-Hopkins. :think Don't quote me on that, but during the PPV leading up to the main event they made no mention at all of planning to air Bozella highlights at the end of the broadcast.

 

So, nobody else feels for Nobuhiro? :yep

...or feels a bit cheated to not see him against Cruz? (which was honestly no worse a match-up than Russell vs. Nguyen, really).