By Rick Reeno
I heard about a very interesting doubleheader that was briefly discussed on Tuesday. From what I was told, discussions on the proposed doubleheader will continue. The idea is to match four of the top guys at junior middleweight, with the winners facing off in the future.
In fight number one, WBO interim-junior middleweight champion Paul Williams would face Kermit Cintron. These two were actually scheduled to fight in the early part of 2008, when they were both welterweight champions. Cintron injured his hand in a tuneup with Jesse Feliciano in November 2007. He withdrew from the Williams fight and instead took a rematch with Antonio Margarito [the winner of Margarito-Cintron was contractually guaranteed a shot at Miguel Cotto that July]. There was bad blood, between Williams and Cintron, before and after the fight fell apart.
Fight number two would see a title defense by WBC junior middleweight champion Sergio Martinez. While a few names were mentioned, one at the top of the list is undefeated Joe Greene. These two were also scheduled to fight at one point - February 14th of this year to be exact. Greene was forced to withdraw after coming down with kidney stones.
If everything comes together, I have a feeling that HBO will be the first stop to pitch the doubleheader - with the agreement that both winners will fight at a later date on their network. Of course HBO, and most people, will have Williams and Martinez as the heavy favorites to win - and that would be some fight. I'm wondering if HBO has enough left in their budget to make a card like this happen.
