By Dan Ambrose: Trainer and HBO analyst Emanuel Steward thinks that former International Boxing Federation (IBF) welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (32-3-1, 28 KO’s) has the talent to beat Manny Pacquiao if given the chance at fighting him. With the 31-year-old Cintron signing with Top Rank promotions earlier today, the chances of Cintron getting a future fight with Pacquiao rose exponentially.

Bob Arum, the president of Top Rank, confirmed in an article with Michael Marley at the examiner.com that Cintron is indeed in the running for Pacquiao’s next fight after he takes on 39-year-old Shane Mosley next month on May 7th. In an article today by Chris Robinson at examiner.com, Steward said “Having managed and trained him [Cintron], he’s one of the best, maybe the best, all around athletes that I have ever been involved with…There’s a good chance he could beat Pacquiao. He has the size, natural skill and unbelievable punching power.”

Steward may have forgotten Cintron’s poor performances against Paul Williams, his two fights against Antonio Margarito and his less than impressive 12 round draw against Sergio Martinez where Cintron was knocked down by a huge left hand from Martinez and was able to convince the referee that the knockdown was from a head butt rather than a left hand. It’s hard to see Cintron beating Margarito right now, much less Pacquiao. Hopefully, Arum waits until Cintron has actually beaten someone talented before he installs him as Pacquiao’s next opponent.

A fight right now between Cintron and Pacquiao would open Pacquiao and Arum up for a lot of criticism because of how Cintron’s last fight with Williams ended. In that fight, Cintron dove out of the ring in the 4th when the going got tough. Although it looked like Cintron had tripped over one of Williams’ legs, it still caused a lot of fans to speculate that Cintron had dove out of the ring to save himself from getting punishment by Williams.