By Rick Reeno

BoxingScene.com has been advised that former champion Kermit Cintron (33-4-1, 28KOs) is abandoning his plan to drop down to the welterweight division, and plans to move back to the junior middleweight limit of 154-pounds. Cintron's last two fights were contested at a catch-weight of 150-pounds.

A source close to the situation advised BoxingScene that Cintron had severe struggles in making the contracted weight for Friday's fight with Antwone Smith (20-3-1, 12KOs) at the Ameristar Casino in Saint Charles, Missouri.

Cintron, who was coming off a July decision loss to Carlos Molina, took a huge risk in facing Smith on Friday night. He took the fight with less than four weeks notice, and he was paid less than 10% of his contract minimum. Top Rank was not involved in the show. Lou DiBella was handling the card.

After ten rounds, Cintron won a unanimous decision with scores of 98-92, 97-93 and 96-94. Cintron's performance wasn't exactly scintillating. He made the fight a lot harder on himself by staying on the inside and smothering his own punches in almost every single round.

With the win, Cintron lives to fight another day, but he needs to be a lot more impressive to regain the good graces of the boxing public.