KERMIT CINTRON

'Kermit Cintron' (born October 22, 1979) is a Puerto Rican boxer who is from Carolina. Cintron is trained and managed by Emanuel Steward. Main Events is his promoter.

Contents

Early life

Amateur career

Professional career

Title Reign

External links

See also

Early life

Cintron had a tough childhood. He witnessed as his mother lay in bed for months before she died of Cancer. Unable to care for Cintron and his siblings, Cintron's father sent him to the United States, with Cintron's uncle, Benjamin Serrano, a former Middleweight contender who had fought ''Frank The Animal Fletcher'' among others. Cintron's father, however, kept regular contact with his kids. But when Cintron was 13, another tragic blow shook him: His father died of a heart attack, leaving him and his siblings orphaned on both sides.
Cintron found wrestling and boxing to be an outlet from his personal troubles, so he started spending more and more of his time practicing those sports. While attending William Tennent High School in Warminster, Pennsylvania, he became an accomplished high-school wrestler on the same team as actor Mike Vogel, but an injury to his knee prevented him from going on. Because of that, he turned into boxing full time.

Amateur career

Cintron did not start boxing in the amateurs until he was 19. He compiled a record of 24 wins and 3 losses as an amateur.

Professional career

On the night of October 7, 2000, he knocked out Jesse Williams in two rounds in Lancaster to begin his professional career. With that, he began an undefeated streak that continued on for a considerable amount of time.
One of his toughest tests so far came against Omar Davila, February 16 of 2002. He took up the fight on one week's notice and travelled to San Antonio, to fight at his opponent's hometown. Cintron was cut on the side of one of his eyes in round one. Facing adversity, he came back to defeat Davila by knockout in round two.
Cintron was featured on NBC May 18 of 2003, against Puerto Rican veteran Luis Rosario, and he won by knockout, 59 seconds into round one.
On July 17, 2004, he made his HBO Boxing debut, knocking out the usually durable Teddy Reid in eight rounds.
KO Magazine made a feature article on Cintron, where they compared him to Félix Trinidad and Thomas Hearns for his punching power.
Kermit Cintron got his first world title try when he challenged the WBO world Welterweight champion, Antonio Margarito, as part of a Pay Per View undercard that also featured a win by Shane Mosley. Cintron was dropped four times en route to a fifth round knockout loss at the hands of Margarito, who kept the world crown.
In early 2006 he was pitted against David Estrada and Kermit won when the referee stopped the match in round 10. Estrada went the distance in a previous bout against Shane Mosley. Cintron reestablished himself as a contender in the welterweight division.
Against Mark Suarez he won the vacant IBF title.
When Floyd Mayweather said that any boxer could make the transition into the UFC and win, UFC president Dana White issued him a challenge to fight UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk. Mayweather later apologised and said he did not wish to fight in mixed martial arts. However, boxer Kermit Cintron is willing to take on Sherk.
Cintron, who will defend his championship against Walter Matthysse on July 14 in Atlantic City, said he'd be willing to fight Sherk after that.
"I want the fight," said Cintron, who is 27-1 with 25 KOs. "I can wrestle. I can box. I can beat those UFC fighters at their own game. Tell Mr. White to make me an offer and I'll take on his guy after I fight Matthysse on July 14."Cintron went on to win the fight by KO 29 seconds into the second round with total dominance. It should be noted that Matthysse was never knocked down prior to this fight but got knocked down twice before the knockdown that caused the KO.
Cintron wrestled in high school and was offered full wrestling scholarships to Wisconsin and Ohio State.

Title Reign

In October of 2006 Cintron took on Mark Suarez for the Vacant IBF Welterweight Title, and won the belt via a convincing 6th round TKO, wearing Suarez down gradually with hard shots.

External links

★ Career record
[1]

See also

★ List of famous Puerto Ricans

★ List of current world boxing champions

★ List of welterweight boxing champions