Monday, April 25, 2005 | 9:54 a.m.
As complete and devastating as his performance against Kermit Cintron was Saturday, Antonio Margarito saw his victory not as a climactic scene but as a new beginning.
"This is the first step," Margarito said after stopping Cintron in the fifth round at the Roman Plaza Amphitheatre at Caesars Palace. "I'm ready to show everyone that I'm one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world. This is just the start."
Margarito (32-4, 23 knockouts) floored Cintron twice in the fourth round and twice in the fifth round in defending his WBO welterweight title for the fifth time.
The TKO established Margarito, 27, as a big-money player in the welterweight division, with possible fights looming against bankable names such as Shane Mosley, Oscar De La Hoya or Zab Judah.
Mosley celebrated his return to the 147-pound level by scoring a unanimous-decision victory against David Estrada on Saturday's undercard.
"I would like to fight De La Hoya, Mosley, people like that -- big names," Margarito, of Tijuana, said. "I think all those fights can be (made), and I hope they are, because I'm ready for them. ... I can fight any of those guys at the elite level. I showed them I deserve the opportunity."
Cintron (24-1, 22 KOs), a native of Puerto Rico who lives in Reading, Pa., was heralded as a hard hitter with knockout power, but he failed to fire against Margarito, a slight betting favorite.
Margarito, who turned pro at age 15 in Mexico after going 18-3 as an amateur, has fought tougher opponents than Cintron throughout his career.
"I always said a puncher can be knocked out," Margarito said. "I said before the fight that he has never fought anyone at the level I'm at."
Margarito spent the first two rounds feeling his opponent out, absorbing a series of double jabs from Cintron.
The champion turned up the heat in Round 3 at the outdoor arena, inflicting a deep cut by Cintron's right eye with a big left uppercut. Cintron was wobbled and bleeding profusely from the cut when his cornermen stepped up to ask referee Kenny Bayless to halt the fight at 2:12 of the fifth.
"I showed him I have the same power he has," Margarito said in a gracious understatement.
Cintron, 25, said he had no excuses for the loss, although his trainer, Marshall Kauffman, said his fighter had never been cut so badly in his career.
"Once he got cut, it changed everything," Kauffman said. "The strategy was to back (Margarito) up so he couldn't get momentum, but after the second round Kermit let him get momentum.
"It wasn't worth it to keep it going," Kauffman said of throwing in the towel. "He's a young kid."
Mosley (40-4, 35 KOs) beat Estrada (18-2) in a 10-rounder by scores of 97-93, 98-91 and 99-91 on the judges' cards. It was Mosley's return to the welterweight division after going 1-2 with a no-contest in four fights at 154 pounds.
"I felt a lot better; I didn't feel flat-footed," Mosley, a three-time world champion, said. "I was able to move around better. He was a pretty tough fighter; he had a very strong will. ... I think I showed him a lot of nice shots."
In a 10-round heavyweight bout on the ESPN Pay-Per-View card, Calvin Brock (25-0, 20 KOs) sustained a seventh-round knockdown but won a unanimous decision against Jameel McCline (31-5-3) by scores of 96-94, 96-93 and 97-93.
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