SECOND TIME'S A CHARM

by Chuck Johnson

Since losing his first title shot against Antonio Margarito on a fifth-round knockout nearly three years ago, IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron has longed for the chance to avenge his only defeat.

Cintron's wait will end April 12 at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall where he's scheduled to fight the former WBO welterweight champion in a rematch of their April 23, 2005 title bout.

Margarito (35-5, 25 KOs) dominated their first fight by sending Cintron (29-1, 27 KOs) down to the canvas four times before stopping him. Fans who watched the one-sided fight have to wonder why things would be any different in a rematch.

Cintron, 28, says there's good reason to believe he'll win this time. He blames his poor performance against Margarito, 30, on a right hand injury he carried into the bout.

"The Margarito fight was the worst I've ever done," he says. "I was injured and was not ready."

Ironically, the health of Cintron's right hand could again be an issue. He and WBO welterweight champion Paul Williams were slated to fight a title unification bout in February, but that fight had to be canceled because of the right hand injury Cintron suffered in a 10th-round TKO victory in November against Jesse Feliciano.

Cintron could have rescheduled the fight with Williams. Instead, he chose to fight Margarito in the co-feature of the HBO World Championship Boxing doubleheader. In the main event, WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto defends his title against Alfonso Gomez, with the winner likely to meet the Cintron-Margarito winner in a big-money title unification bout in the fall.

As Cintron is quick to point out, he's now a champion, while Margarito comes into the rematch as a challenger, having lost his WBO belt on a unanimous decision against Williams in July, 2007.

Margarito protested after losing his title that he connected with the most effective shots and did enough to win. But Williams was given a slight edge on the judges' scorecards because of the volume of punches he landed and the ease in which he dictated the fight. Responding to his skeptics, Margarito rebounded with a first-round TKO victory against Golden Johnson in November.

Meanwhile, Cintron has reeled off five consecutive victories, all by knockouts, since his loss to Margarito. The Reading, Pa. resident, by way of Puerto Rico, will be making his third title defense since he captured the IBF crown in October, 2006 with a sixth-round TKO of Mark Suarez.

Cintron speaks confidently of flipping the script to gain his revenge. For one thing, he's motivated to show that Margarito can't handle him at his best.

"You better believe I will be ready the next time around,'' Cintron says. "People are waiting for me to fight Margarito and that is a fight I want. To make people shut up, I need to fight Margarito, and I need to win. When I win and I beat Margarito, people will stop talking then.

As much as anything, Cintron's improved footwork, punching leverage and stamina since bringing aboard Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward might be the biggest reasons Margarito could be in for a rude awakening.

"Emanuel is what I needed in my career to become a champion," Cintron says. "I didn't have him when I first fought Margarito."

Steward, who has trained more than 30 world champions, says there's never been a more important fight in Cintron's career.

"The Margarito fight is something that Kermit wants to avenge very badly,'' Steward says. "He wants to prove he's better than Margarito. We're willing to give Margarito a shot to clear things up once and for all."

With both fighters noted for devastating punching power, Cintron has elevated his skills since they met the first time but still has to prove he can either avoid or withstand Margarito's wrath and have the wherewithal to execute a winning counter-offensive.

A loss wouldn't be the death knell to Cintron's still-rising career, but it would definitely send him back to the drawing board and drop him out of the mix at the top of boxing's most competitive weight division.

On the other hand, another title-bout loss by Margarito could very well signal that the former champion from Tijuana, Mexico is past his peak and no longer the feared opponent who for years clamored to no avail for a bout against No. 1 welterweight Floyd Mayweather.

With so much at stake, expect Margarito to come out fighting like there's no tomorrow while Cintron's mission is to prove it's a new day.