Sergio Martinez vs. Kermit Cintron: Round by Round

Both men unofficially weigh 164 pounds, so we will have an even fight for this one in terms of weight.

I don't know a lot about Martinez, other than he is supposed to be very good. Cintron I have seen fight probably a dozen times. He is strong and hits hard.

Interestingly, these fighters have a combined three losses, all to the recently disgraced Antonio Margarito. It's a nice subplot. Could mean nothing, could mean these guys have zero legit losses. Make your own conclusion.

Round 1
Martinez is a lefty and is doing the circling. Not much punching happening, just the usual feeling out in the first round. Nice left from martinez. Not much aggression. Martinez is picking his spots here and there to jump in. and they grab when that happens. There's a left hook counter attempt by cintron to the body. If I could, I would score this 0-0.

Uatu: 10-9 Martinez

Round 2
Lennox Lewis says Margarito is a disgrace. He compares it to using brass knuckles. He isn't buying that Tony didn't know. Second round looks the same as the first. If Tony did cheat against Cintron, then I feel especially bad for Kermit. It really has damaged his career, as Max Kellerman has said. Nothing of significance landing either way. There's a 1-2 from Kermit. Some more clinching. The clinch fest brings some scattered boos.

Uatu: 10-9 Cintron

Round 3
I guess it's too early for either man to really go for broke, so Martinez goes back to lots of movement. Right to the body from Kermit. I think Cintron could stand to be more aggressive. Martinez isn't really throwing much. There's a cintron jab. Martinez may have gotten a left in there. He tried a combo but he isn't really committing. Perhaps Martinez respects the power. Martinez looks quicker on his feet. He is doing a lot of dancing and he isn't getting hit, but he isn't doing much to hit Cintron either. Hard to score these rounds.

Uatu: Martinez 10-9

Round 4
Harold Lederman likes Cintron 2-1 right now. It's a feasible score. So would three 10-10 rounds. I am not a boxer, but I always find it odd when fighters pump a range-finding jab when they are so far apart that even if they both leaped in simultaneously like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon there is no way they could hit each other. Cintron shuffles his way in behind jabs to throw a combo, but Martinez is doing a ton of grabbing. Lennox asks for an uppercut from either man, and I have to agree. There are some hard shots from Martinez. He lands a nice solid right that was easily the best punch of the night. It's not life changing, but it still counts.

Uatu: Martinez 10-9

Round 5
Cintron is trying to to press but Martinez knows how to move. A cut forms over Cintron's eye from a left from Martinez. He is somewhat pot-shotting but isn't really sniping away either. Martinez is too mobile to all out blitz him. Cintron jabs. There, Lennox says Cintron needs to cut off the ring and I agree wholeheartedly. Martinez is looking like a supreme ring general right now but is minus the clean effective punching to go with it.

Uatu: Martinez 10-9

Round 6
The ref calls the cut a butt, but the announcers point out that it was a punch. The refs have blown both calls tonight so far. Probably a very difficult to make on the fly. Replay would be helpful. Kellerman agrees with me, saying it was an easy call to miss. More of the same. Cintron is showing patience. He tries the uppercut to no avail. Maybe Martinez could tire of the movement, but Cintron needs to get some of those punches in the bank to help push Martinez that way. Some more talk of how crucial those Cintron losses to Tony were for his career. He should be more mad about that whole wraps thing than any other fighter out there. Nothing different happened this round from the last few. No big punches landed either way really.

Uatu: Martinez 10-9

Round 7
Harold has it 4-2 Martinez, including the last four in a row. Harold is incredulous over the fact that Cintron's trainer is not telling him to cut off the ring. One-two from Martinez and out. These are not hard shots, and they are going to the body. Martinez seems more concerned with bailing out than hitting hard. Will cintron go all out at some point? There's a right over the top, but nothing to go with it. Martinez is doing enough to keep Kermit honest. Oh my! Something happened. Cintron goes down. The count goes to 9. He gets up at like 9 1/2. He says it was a headbutt. This was a strange turn of events. Kermit backed up to the ropes oddly. Was it a butt? No sir. That was a "good crunching left hand" as Bob Papa said. That was legit. The ref said he saw no butt. Kermit is sure it was a butt, but the announcers say he was fooled by Martinez. Now the fight is back on! Kermit argued his way to get to keep fighting! The ref says he was up at 9, so even if it was a punch, it's not over! The ref says legit knockdown. Okay, we are back on.

Uatu: Martinez 10-8

Round 8
There has been over 2 and 1/2 minutes now between rounds. Confusion abounds, but the HBO crew says it was the right call. Legit punch knockdown, Cintron got up at 9. Craziness. But now the crowd and the fighters are slightly more into the fight. There's a nice right from Kermit. Martinez is into this too. Both men are throwing a little harder. Another awesome left from Martinez and Cintron hit him hard at the same time. And another nice left from Martinez. Maybe Martinez knew what he was doing all along.

Uatu: Martinez 10-9

Round 9
Martinez is circling. Martinez seems to win when they are in range with one another. He is just a little too quick for Cintron. Cintron throwing some hard shots but Martinez dodges and moves. Nice jab from Kermit. One-two-three from Martinez but none land well. Martinez likes to stand back with his hands down and then lunge in.

Uatu: Martinez 10-9

Round 10
Max and Lennox both think Cintron got his knee up by the slimmest of margins after that knockdown. Harold has Martinez winning 7 rounds in a row. Harold believes the ref makes the call, and he said 10, and the fight was over. Oh well. Very nice right from Kermit - maybe his best punch. And a left backs Martinez up a little bit. Both men score to the head. I like what I'm seeing from Kermit. He gets another nice shot in. Martinez gets a warning for grabbing or something. Kermit is pressing a bit, finally. A right from Kermit.

Uatu: Cintron 10-9

Round 11
Harold agrees, giving the last round to Cintron. The usual grabbing ensues. Martinez is back to his old tricks. Cintron gets a nice shot in, then a 1-2. Cintron is dipping back slightly when Martinez dives in and is making him miss too. Martinez is still putting in work though too. Martinez got in a decent combo. Martinez is just more active. Can't really give cintron this round. Martinez is looking strong and is still throwing hard. Even though he moves around and in and out, it's not like he punches softly. He has some zip on his punches.

Uatu: Martinez 10-9

Round 12
Martinez lands a left and talks trash and mugs for the crowd. He is super confident right now. He has enough energy and speed. Oh my - a one point deduction for Martinez for grabbing and Lennox is not liking it. Max thinks Cintron has been grabbing more, actually. Cintron goes down, but it was a slip. Now Cintron is moving around like Martinez, which is odd. Martinez is the aggressor in the corner. Cintron backs to the ropes. Martinez looks no different in this round than the previous 11. He is in excellent condition. And that's it.

Uatu: 9-9

Uatu scores it 117-109 Martinez. The judges score it 116-110 Martinez and 113-113 twice. The fight ends in a majority draw!

The announcing team thinks Martinez won, and Max says the deduction was absurd. CompuBox has Martinez landing more punches at a higher percentage than Cintron, with a 98-52 edge in power shots. CompuBox doesn't mean a lot to me, however.

I thought Martinez won clearly, but it wasn't like he steamrollered Cintron. There was a lot of ineffective punching from both men for large periods of this fight.

Now both men have still not lost to anyone but Margarito.