ANTONIO MARGARITO KO6 KERMIT CINTRON

I am starting to think that Antonio Margarito might be one of the toughest fighters ever seen in the welterweight division, which is saying something. He took some bombs from Kermit Cintron in Saturday night’s opening bout on HBO and just kept coming forward, letting the punches fly, a relentless aggressor who would not be denied.

Cintron, as had generally been expected, put up a far better fight than he did three years ago in Las Vegas when Margarito rolled right over him in five rounds, and he was not disgraced in his sixth-round defeat. Cintron did as well as anyone could reasonably have expected, but the result never really seemed in doubt from round two onwards.

It was as if everything Cintron delivered was being repaid with interest. He would land clean, flush shots, then Margarito would come to him again and batter him around.

It must have been very discouraging for Cintron to see Margarito walk through everything. In the third round, for instance, Cintron landed a textbook-perfect right uppercut, a tremendous shot, yet Margarito merely paused for a couple of seconds — as if he was thinking: “That was a good shot” — and then marched right in again.

Although each man was cut, Margarito, Lord love him, seemed to be enjoying the fight in the fifth round while Cintron was like a man fighting for his very life. When Margarito grinned at Cintron after taking yet another direct hit it seemed clear that the IBF title would soon be changing hands, but the end came suddenly in the sixth when a left hook to the body crumpled the Puerto Rican fighter.

I wrote a piece on one-punch, body-shot knockouts for espn.com not so long ago. That finishing left hook from Margarito would have made the list.