By Jim Dower: According to Steve Kim at maxboxing, former IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (32-3-1, 28 KO’s) will be co-promoted by Top Rank. This is really good news for fans of Cintron, because once he signs with Top Rank, Cintron could find himself in fights with guys like WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Cintron’s career is at a standstill right now following his 4th round technical decision loss last year in May against Paul Williams.

Cintron has failed to fight an interesting opponent all this time despite being flexible about fighting in either the welterweight or junior middleweight divisions. Cintron needs to take on a high visibility opponent so that he can get a title shot against one of the champions. Recently, Cintron had been trying without luck to get a fight against WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto. However, Berto has made it clear that he wants no part of a fight with the hard hitting Cintron.

Cintron looked impressive in defeating highly respected Alfredo Angulo by a 12 round decision two years ago in 2009. Following that fight, Cintron crushed Juliano Ramos by a 5th round stoppage in October 2009. Then, however, Cintron’s fight with Williams came along and that fight kind of was a huge disappointment for Cintron. He was doing well against Williams until tripping over his leg and flying out of the ring in the 4th. Cintron injured his shoulder during the fall unfortunately. Some boxing fans felt that Cintron had intentionally leaped out of the ring in order to spare himself the punishment that he would have had to endure if he had continued to fight. However, that seems like a bunch of nonsense because Cintron was getting to Williams at the time he tripped.