The broadcast, though, was dreadful, because all three men were woefully mismatched. Alvarez fought veteran Kermit Cintron, a one-time quality fighter who had clearly reached the end of the line. Cintron, though, was a vastly superior opponent to the men that Broner and Russell faced.
Broner blew out Argentinian Vicente Martin Rodriguez in fewer than three rounds. Rodriguez had a good record, but had never fought out of his native Argentina and he?d met questionable opposition. In his last seven fights prior to meeting Broner, he?d faced guys with records of 0-7, 24-3, 9-5-2, 20-24-5, 14-3-1, 14-7-1, 9-10-2, 11-20-4 and 16-7-1. It was like pairing the Celtics against the Albany Patroons and the Lakers against the Rapid City Thrillers.
?I?ll tell you the truth: I think I?d have had a very difficult time getting him on an ESPN show,? said promoter Joe DeGuardia of Star Boxing, who does a lot of business with ESPN.
Russell fought long-since shot Heriberto Ruiz, who not only hadn?t beaten anyone of note in years, but who had done all of his best work at bantamweight, two classes below where he faced Russell.
Those type of one-sided matches find their way onto the major premium cable networks all too often while bouts like the 10-round super welterweight brawl on July 15 at the Roseland Ballroom in New York between Pawel Wolak and Delvin Rodriguez are routinely ignored.
There are fighters in the game more talented than either Wolak or Rodriguez, and Alvarez, Broner and Russell are unquestionably in that group.
