By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (32-3-1, 28 KO’s) will be fighting on the undercard of the WBA lightweight title fight between champion Brandon Rios vs. challenger Urbano Antillon on July 9th. There still isn’t an opponent picked out for the 31-year-old Cintron but one should be selected shortly. Cintron recently signed with Top Rank promotions and is thought to be in the running for a fight against other Top Rank stable fighters Manny Pacquiao or Miguel Cotto in the near future.

However, Cintron needs to get some fights under his belt first because he hasn’t fought since last year when he dove out of the ring after tripping on his opponent Paul Williams’ leg in the 4th round in May. Cintron was injured during the fall and subsequently lost the fight by a 4th round technical decision. Some boxing fans felt that Cintron purposely dove out of the ring in order to avoid having to deal with another 8 rounds of Williams. However, Cintron was fighting well at the time of the incident, which would make it unlikely that he would jump out of the ring on purpose.

Cintron’s performances have been uneven in the past few years with a knockout defeat by Antonio Margarito in 2008, and then a gift 12 round draw with Sergio Martinez. Cintron is incredibly lucky he wasn’t knocked out in the Martinez fight because he was put down by a left hand from Martinez but then was able to convince the referee it was from a headbutt. It wasn’t. Cintron should have been counted out in that fight because he was hit with a left hand, not a headbutt. Cintron is the type of fighter that can do well one performance but then fall apart in his next fight. Top Rank is going to have to use him quickly if they want to put him in with Cotto or Pacquiao because he could get beaten again and that would ruin a cash out fight. You can’t let him marinate by putting him in with stiffs for too long because one of them might actually beat Cintron.