18.08.08 – by James Slater: Former IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron, 29-2(27) remains one of the most exciting of all today’s 147 pound operators. Sure, he’s best known for his two losses, both of them to the same man, in Antonio Margarito, but “Tony” is a fighter who simply has Cintron’s number. Against almost any other welterweight, “El Asesino” would have a legitimate chance of winning.
Now back in the gym training after his last fight back in April – the second loss to the currently all-conquering Mexican – Cintron is ready to take another run at becoming a champion. Newly signed with promoter Lou DiBella, who has faith his new signing can once again win a world championship, the 28-year-old is set to return to the ring on the under-card of November 15th’s scheduled clash between Jeff Lacy and Jermain Taylor.
Coming back not only from his second stoppage defeat, but also from a hand injury (Kermit had surgery on his right hand a month or so after his second loss to Margarito), Cintron is not expected to face anyone too tough in November. But, according to Kermit himself and his new promoter, a fight with former king Miguel Cotto could be on the cards for the near future. Cotto, now 32-1, knows something about what Cintron has gone through twice. Having suffered the same fate as his fellow Puerto Rican when he himself met Margarito (albeit lasting a whole lot longer), Cotto also needs to regroup. A fight between he and Cintron makes good sense, and it would, in all likelihood, make a great fight.
So far, no date has been given for Cotto’s ring return, but as fiercely proud as the 27-year-old is it shouldn’t be too long in coming. Should both men come through their tune-up/comeback fights okay, why not get it on with one another some time next year? Puerto Rico Vs. Puerto Rico. Boxer Vs. Puncher. The battle of the Margarito victims. Call it what you want, but the fight would almost certainly catch fire. We’ve yet to see, of course, how either Cotto or Cintron will look in the ring after their respective beatings at the hands of “Tony.” Will either guy be gun shy, for instance? Will Cotto ever have anything approaching the same aura around him now that he’s been beaten?
One sure-fire way to get started in his quest to make the fans forget his mauling at the hands of Margarito would be a winning fight in which he takes all of Cintron’s bombs without faltering. If Cotto could do that, the claim could be made of his being back. For Cintron, a win over the more overall talented Cotto would do pretty much the same thing. What the winner would choose to do then is open to speculation, but in the meantime, Cotto-Cintron is about as interesting a welterweight match-up as you could make.