Williams v Cintron: Looking Back to See Forward

Williams v Cintron: Looking Back to See Forward

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Paul Williams returns to the ring this weekend and will no doubt be looking to make a resounding statement with an impressive victory. The opponent is Kermit Cintron, a man who's ledger features just two losses, yet he has come into this fight as a serious underdog and for good reason. This writer truly believes that the class of Williams will show itself in this fight as he attempts to remind everybody of the threat he poses to any fighter from 154 to 160 pounds.

The two men have taken different paths to success, but along the way have ran into a number of common opponents. I believe the answer to this fight lies in no small part in how each man performed in these fights. While I spend no small amount telling my peers that "Just because A beats B, B beats C, it doesn't mean that A beats C", the evidence in these fights is quite hard to ignore.

Probably the most notable opponent for each man would be Antonio Margarito. Cintron twice fought the now disgraced Mexican star. First in the main event of an ESPN PPV as an up and coming, undefeated welterweight prospect and secondly as the defending IBF Welterweight champion. He was stopped in both fights, in the 5th and 6th rounds respectively. Kermit was simply unable to keep range and when his usually lethal power shots were shrugged off he was abused on the inside but the bull-strong Margarito.

Kermit brought something to the ring in each of these fights - his undefeated record and then his title - and Margarito took them both.

Paul Williams faced Margarito between the first and second Cintron bouts and Williams managed to walk the Margarito tight rope and come away with the win and Antonio's 147 pound title in the process. The blows that seemed to damage Cintron so savagely appeared to be do little visible damage to Williams and Paul's now legendary motor churned on and secured what would become an landmark victory.

Simply looking at the evidence here, you could be forgiven for thinking this may simply have been a styles match up, but we have another, more recent opponent to cover yet; the recently named Middleweight Champion of the world, Sergio Martinez. Both Williams and Cintron faced the Argentinean born superstar in the past 18 months and neither of them came away smelling of roses but like the aforementioned Margarito fights, there are some serious differences in the performance of each fighter.

Cintron and Martinez fought it out for a WBC trinket last February and although the official ledger reads "Majority Draw" as the decision announced that night, you would be hard pressed to find a fan or media member who saw it as anything less than a clear win for Martinez. In fact, it's one of the only fights in recent memory where one fighter looked to have won the fight twice in the span of the 12 rounds (7th round KO and 12 round decision), yet left the ring with neither.

Kermit looked lost for large portions of this fight and had all kinds of trouble ad******g to the speed and angles of the quicker man, resulting in a dismal offensive output and a connect percentage of less than 20. Probably more worrying was that Cintron, while clearly behind in the fight only managed to get off 45 punchers per round. This last number has been an issue for Cintron his entire career and it might be a serious issue versus the ever busy Williams.

Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez fought last December in what was one of the most exciting back and forth middleweight bouts of the past ten years. In a spectacular fight, filled with drama and back and forth action, Williams had his hand raised, the recipient of a majority decision. It was close though and nobody could have complained had either man walked away with the W.

Winner or not though, Williams was put to the test in this fight and he was hit with the kitchen sink and while his foundations were most certainly shaken and cracked, they never tumbled, which is key, because throughout his career Williams has shown the ability to not only take a good shot, but to battle through some seriously tough situations and acquit himself well, something Cintron has always seemed to struggle with.

When compared with Cintron's punch numbers, Williams' stats are alarmingly superior in almost every way. Williams managed to land 31% of his nearly 82 punches a round and somehow found the slippery Martinez with more than 200 power shots. That's double the total number of punches that Cintron was able to get home.

Now at this point let me say that I'm not big on Compubox. It's great for the average fan sitting at home and we now even get the pretty graphics that light up a dummy and show what's landing where, but more often then not it fails to tell much of the story of a fight. Where I do find it useful however is when analysing future fights certain trends can appear and those might mean more than just simple numbers on a screen; they can be traits that follow fighters throughout their careers. The numbers from the Martinez fights are such and can't really be ignored in the context of their fight this weekend. In this case, the numbers don't lie.

As the evidence from each fighters relevant past is gathered, I find myself thinking that if you were to design the perfect foil for Kermit Cintron, he wouldn't look all too different to Paul Williams. You'd want a fighter who's tall enough to take the range away from the long armed Cintron. Check. A fighter who uses a jab to offset Cintron's own. Check. A solid chin and resilient attitude to counter the Cintron power shots. Check. Enough stamina to output at high volume and outwork the patient, sometimes plodding Puerto Rican. Check. It's almost all there.

About the only thing missing from the equation is the elusiveness that prevents Cintron landing repeated power shots and that's the one thing that gives Cintron a chance in this fight. Paul Williams is there to be hit and with Kermit's proven power, he's not without a glimmer of hope. But a glimmer is all it is. Williams wins and wins big.

Paul Williams TKO9 Kermit Cintron

 

Personally, I could see Williams closing the show earlier than this. Perhaps 5-7th.

 

This is true, and he can hurt him for sure, but I see Williams wearing him down as more likely than Cintron getting to him. I also get the feeling that Cintron will be there for the taking in a big way in a fight or two, maybe a little earlier.