By Jim Dower: This Saturday night three time champion Paul Williams (38-1, 27 KO’s) will be facing former welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (32-2-1, 28 KO’s) in light middleweight action at the Home Depot Center, in Carson, California. This fight, which will be shown on HBO, is important for both fighters as each of them need to win in order to stay alive for a title shot against one of the light middleweight champions. The fight in itself is like a championship match, however, because both Williams and Cintron are probably better than three out of the four current champions in the light middleweight division.

The division isn’t a particularly strong one and is almost entirely lacking in big named stars. Williams probably would have been a huge star by now in the boxing world if he could get the other best fighters like Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Miguel Cotto and Andre Berto to fight him. As it is, Williams has to be satisfied with wins over Carlos Quintana, Winky Wright, Antonio Margarito and Sergio Martinez.

On Saturday night, Williams hopes to collect another good name on his belt with a win over Cintron. Williams, 28, has won five consecutive fights since losing to Quintana by an upset 12 round decision in February 2008. Williams avenged the defeat with a 1st round knockout win four months later over Quintana in June 2008. Following that fight, Williams moved up in weight from the welterweight division to the light middleweight division in order to try and get more fights.

He’s since beaten Andy Kolle, Verno Phillips, Winky Wright and Martinez. Williams beat Martinez by a 12 round majority decision last December in a fight that was a lot closer than the final judges scores would have you believe. Williams hopes to fight Martinez again in the near future after Martinez gets through with his rematch commitment with former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, if Pavlik decides to enact his rematch clause with Martinez.

Cintron, 30, is fighting a lot better since moving up in weight from the welterweight division in 2009. Cintron has won two out of his three fights at junior middleweight, and fought to a 12 round draw with Martinez. Last year, Cintron defeated top contender/prospect Alfredo Angulo by a 12 round majority decision in May. The fight was something of an upset, because a lot of boxing fans thought that Angulo would take Cintron out. However, Cintron used a lot of movement to keep the slower Angulo from having a target for his big shots.

Cintron was stopped by Margarito for the 2nd time in April 2008. Cintron had problems with Margarito’s high work rate in that fight and was eventually battered by Margarito’s constant rain of punches. The same thing could happen on Saturday night with Williams, who like Margarito, is known for his high work rate. If Cintron makes the mistake of standing in front of Williams, he’s going to get snowed under by Williams’s constant incoming fire. However, Cintron will likely use constant movement similar to his fight with Angulo to try and keep Williams from getting his punches off.