I was surprised no one brought this up.
Feliciano is a bum, but he had a rock solid chin and a whole lotta heart. That fight was almost as entertaining as the marquee fight.
I didn't think dude could just keep taking those shots to the head and keep coming, but he did. finally caught up to him after 10 rounds or so, though.
That guy had the right strategy against Kermit (as far as nullifying his arm length by fighting him close), but his lack of mobility and defense proved the difference.
I don't want to take anything away from Feliciano because he fought an excellent fight, had a great game plan and has a solid chin, but the two things about Cintron that bug me are:
1). is this guy an idiot? Why the hell would he continue to fight inside for 10 rounds when he should have easily won the fight by creating just a little bit of distance and using his greatest skill which is power shots from the outside? This to me either means that he's an idiot or that he really isn't as good of a boxer as I thought and he has no chance against any of the elite fighters like Paul Williams, Cotto, etc.
2). The whole over dramatic celebration/injury was
HIGHLY suspect. He said the injury happened in the 2nd round, yet never once during the fight did he show any indication whatsoever that he was fighting hurt, in fact, he continued to throw POWER shots with the very hand that was supposedly injured the ENTIRE fight! Furthermore, after the ref stopped the fight he raised his hands, big smile on his face, paused, then all of a sudden he fell to his knees and rolled around as if he was in agonizing pain. To me, it seemed he tried his hardest to save face and give an excuse as to why he barely beat a bum. It seemed pretty blatant to me.
I'm not a huge Cintron fan, but I have been really impressed with him lately, so much so that I favored him over Paul Williams. After that fight, I just don't know about this guy at all.
You can learn a lot from boxers when they struggle, especially observing how they handle tough fights with "lesser" opponents. I mean when he cried in the ring after losing to Margarito, one could say that he was just an emotional young fighter, so much was at stake he just lost control, no big deal, but now to see him act like a fool again, you start to wonder what kind of mental state this guy is in.