By Chris Williams: Former IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (32-3-1, 28 KO’s) sees action in a crucial fight for him on Saturday night against the tough junior middleweight fringe contender Carlos Molina (18-4-2, 6 KO’s) in a 10 round bout at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

Cintron, 31, is now promoted by Top Rank and he’s been told that he’s in the running to be a future opponent for Manny Pacquiao as long as Cintron can keep winning and looking good. Unfortunately, Cintron hasn’t fought since losing a 4th round technical decision 14 months ago to Paul Williams last year in May 2010.

Cintron dove/fell out of the ring after tripping on the ankle of Williams in the 4th and was injured when he landed on the floor next to the ring. A lot of boxing fans thought that Cintron dove out of the ring to avoid what could have been a long and grueling fight against the all action Williams. Whatever the case, Cintron didn’t help himself by staying out of the ring all this time, and he’s going to have to avoid doing that again if he wants to get a fight against Pacquiao.

Cintron had been doing a little before that with wins over Alfredo Angulo and Juliano Ramos in his two prior fights. Cintron’s problems started when he was stopped by Antonio Margarito in a 6th round TKO in 2008, and then he was given a gift 12 round draw with Sergio Martinez in a fight that Cintron was knocked down in but convinced the referee that he had been head butted.

Cintron probably should have been counted out in that fight, because he was hit with a left hand from Martinez, not a head butt. But you got to hand it to Cintron, he did a great job of talking the referee into believing it was a head butt that he was knocked down by.

That fight didn’t win Cintron any fans, though. However, he made up for it partially by beating Angulo in his next fight in 2009. Unfortunately, Cintron’s career momentum was stopped when he fell out of the ring in the Williams fight. That further caused a lot of boxing fans to be turned off by Cintron. But with all the time he’s been out of action, Cintron’s fight with Williams may have been forgotten by fans and he can kind of start with a new slate on Saturday night.

“It’s [Cintron vs. Pacquiao] a great match to be made,” Cintron said in an article at readingeagle.com. “He comes to fight. I don’t back down. Ronnie has been training me to use my jab a lot and box. I think it’s a good fight, one kind of like Pacquiao-Cotto fight, with me being slightly bigger puncher than Cotto, so I think I could slow him down. I know he’d be definitely shocked and feel my power.”

I don’t think it would be a good fight. I already saw Cintron get stopped twice by recent Pacquiao victim Antonio Margarito, and the Martinez fight didn’t impress me either. Pacquiao would likely destroy Cintron easier than he did Cotto and some of his other recent victims. However, I can see the fight being made because Arum’s stable of fighters isn’t very big around welterweight, and he likes to match up his fighters against each other with in house fights.