Gatti vs Gomez, Cintron vs. Mathysse Boardwalk Hall 07-14-07

Gomez brings the thunder and Cintron makes it rain at Boardwalk Hall!

photo by: Mike McGuigan

It was a big night in the boxing world this last Saturday with much of the attention focused on two Welterweight showdowns at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ as the IBF portion of the title was on the line with Reading, PA native Kermit “The Killer” Cintron defending the strap against Walter Mathysse of Argentina and in the main event, Arturo “Thunder” Gatti looking to extend his career against the hand picked Alfonso Gomez.

While the co-feature looked good on paper, IBF Welterweight Champ Kermit Cintron proved that Walter Mathysse just doesn’t belong in the ring with this level of competition. Cintron on the other hand turned in another crowd pleasing performance and continues to impress under the tutelage of Emmanuel Stewart. With the win, Cintron inches his way closer to a high profile fight against a world class opponent and restores some of the luster lost at the hands of Antonio Margarito.

In the opening round, both fighters wasted no time getting into it as Mathysse looked to work mostly on the inside and Cintron played counter puncher. Both fighters traded through most of the first until Cintron landed a hard right uppercut followed by an overhand right that put Mathysse on the seat of his pants just as the round ended.

Cintron wasted no time in the 2nd; cracking Mathysse with straight right seconds into the round and scoring knockdown number two. Mathysse beat the count but Cintron closed it out with a beautiful left uppercut / right cross combo leaving the Argentinean on his back and out for the count: 29 into the second round

With the win, Cintron improves to 28 – 1 26ko’s and promptly called for a showdown against “Sugar” Shane Mosley.

In the Main Event, the world witnessed the end of an era as Alfonso Gomez becomes the first member of The Contender series to score an important victory with his one sided shellacking of Arturo Gatti, ending it in the 7th round with a perfectly placed right hand to the chin sending the blood and guts warrior on his back and into retirement.

In what was thought to be a tune up fight for Gatti’s final run, Gomez out everythinged Gatti over 7 rounds much to the dismay of the loyalist who make the trip to Atlantic City whenever Gatti laces them up. In the beginning Gatti opted to box with the bigger Gomez and for his effort, ate a steady diet of jabs and straight right hands as Gomez timed him perfectly and steadily moved forward throughout the first three rounds. Gomez picked it up in the fourth putting three and four punch combos together and also burying left hooks to the body. In the 5th Gatti tried to break it down into a slugfest but Gomez stayed cool, weathered a bit of an early storm and continued to fire off a stiff left jab followed by a straight right that found their mark at an alarming rate. By the 6th it was evident that it would not be Gatti’s night and in the 7th Gatti took a fierce beating from the start and was finished off with a perfectly placed right hand to the face. There was no need for a ten count as New Jersey commish Larry Hazzard ran into the ring to call off the contest.

After the fight Gomez called out Julio Ceasar Chavez Jr while the battered Gatti called it a career.

With the win, Gomez improves to 17 – 3 – 2, 8ko’s

On the undercard….

Giovanni Lorenzo scored a 3rd round TKO over Sharwin Davis

Pawel Wolak scored a 2nd round TKO over Edgar Reyes

Henry Crawford needed only :35 seconds in the 1st to dispose of Josh Hammock

Raul Martinez made Evaristo Primero quit on the stool after 5.

Kaseem Wilson took a one sided unanimous decision over Sergio Garcia

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions you can email Philly Keith at keith@phillykeith.com

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