Gomez & Cintron Confident of Victory

By Francisco Guzman Alfonso Gomez and Kermit Cintron are confident that things are going to go their way this Saturday night. Gomez is trying to repeat what he did in his last appearance at the Boardwalk Hall. When he knocked out and retired Arturo “Thunder” Gatti. The difference in this fight is that Arturo was a fighter trying to once more reclaim himself after a loss to Carlos Baldomir and Cotto is an undefeated fighter in his prime who is gaining momentum in each and every fight. There is a similarity in this fight and that is that Gomez yet again is an underdog trying to prove the critics wrong fighting in the same arena he did it in. Not without some adversity. During training he came down with some health issues shown in one of his webisode on his website alfonsogomez.com. There is also a rumor of reinjuring his hand again.

Gomez: “I did have some problems, some health issues. I did break my hand in my last fight against Ben Tackie. I am still recuperating. This is an opportunity that come very rarely and pulling out because of my hand that would be a mistake. I don’t want to wake up Sunday morning watching him on TV saying that could have been me or I could have done it. I am going to come out victorious. I am training really hard for this. Come April 12th there is going to be a new world champion.

Cintron is trying to erase his knockout loss to the Tijuana Tornado Antonio Margarito back in 2001. Kermit was knocked down twice in the 4th and twice in the 5th before his corner threw in the towel causing a halt to the bout at 2:21. Since then Cintron rejuvenate himself with 5 straight fights by knockout. In his last fight he had a hard time against Jesse Feliciano hurting his hand and somehow he mustered the strength to stop him in the 10th round. Since that fight he received critism for his performance something that has seemed to anger him. Cintron believes a win against Margarito would probably silence the critics. A win would also line him up for a mega fight against Miguel Cotto if he gets past Gomez this Saturday.

Cintron: “I am in great shape. I had a perfect training camp. I’m going to let it all out on Saturday and I will do my talking in the ring. I am now a better boxer. Since I’ve had Emmanuel Steward with me, I have improved a lot. I’m no longer a slugger that swarms. I am boxing more. I have more experience and I am going to show him this Saturday. I am very prepared physically and mentally”