Former welterweight champion Kermit Cintron will take on Carlos Moliina to kick off the July 9 Showtime broadcast that will be hadline by Brandon Rios defending the WBA Lightweight title against Urbano Antillon in Las Vegas according to Dan Rafael of espn.com.
“It’s not signed, but it’s all agreed to,” said Carl Moretti of Top Rank of Cintron-Molina. “It’s Mexico versus Puerto Rico, and that is always a great rivalry in boxing. The winner is going to get a big fight.”
“Molina is on a little bit of a roll with the draw over Lara and the win over Conyers,” Moretti said. “A lot of people thought he beat Lara. You have a highly motivated Molina and a Cintron, who has to beat someone like this to get back to where he wants to be at 147 or 154 pounds. I hate the cliche of it being called a crossroads fight, but it really is.”
A Cintron victory would likely put him back in the mix for a much bigger fight at welterweight or junior middleweight.
“He has the ability to fight at 147 or 154, so if he wins, Cintron puts himself into play for a lot of different fights,” said Moretti, noting that he could eventually face junior middleweight titleholders Miguel Cotto or Sergiy Dzinziruk. “There are a lot of names out there where if he wins, he can find himself another fight on premium cable.”
