Kermit Cintron confident he’ll be back in title hunt

5/2/2008 Kermit Cintron confident he’ll be back in title hunt The Wyomissing welterweight is targeting a September return after losing his IBF belt to Antonio Margarito on April 12. By Don Stewart Reading Eagle The cuts and bruises on his face were healed. The easy smile indicated that his pride was still intact. It was 19 days since Kermit Cintron’s second career defeat, and the welterweight slugger seemed upbeat Thursday as he gave his first interview since that April 12 loss to rival Antonio Margarito. It was his second knockout loss to Margarito, and this time it cost Cintron the IBF belt. The Wyomissing resident remained confident, however, that he could fight his way back into the world title hunt. “I’ll be in the gym training even harder than I did before,” Cintron said. “Plus, I still have the motivation. I have my wife Maria, (daughters) Denali and Savannah, and a son on the way. “That’s a lot of motivation right there. I’ll definitely be back.” Cintron (29-2) said he’s targeting a September return, but first up is another operation on his right hand. This one is a relatively minor operation to fix a torn ligament, though he said he’ll need two weeks of recovery, followed by four weeks of therapy. The ligament originally was damaged last November during Cintron’s successful title defense against Jesse Feliciano. He said the injury didn’t affect him during his seven-week training camp for Margarito, or in the actual fight. After winning the first round on two of the three judges’ cards, Cintron began trading more frequently with Margarito at close range. By the third round, Margarito (36-5) was dominating. Cintron, 28, showed plenty of courage before getting stopped by a body shot in the sixth round, but he acknowledged that he played to the shorter Margarito’s strengths by going toe-to-toe. “Our plan was to really box him from the outside,” he said. “Every time I was able to box him from the outside, I was dominating. But he just kept coming forward. “I didn’t feel comfortable moving side to side for some reason. I couldn’t get my rhythm from the outside. Our plan was to keep him off balance, but he just kept coming forward. You could tell that he wanted it bad.” Cintron has watched the tape of the fight three times. He said he gets “disgusted” with himself whenever he watches himself neglecting to box Margarito from long range. “I did want to box him more,” Cintron said. “You saw what I did from the outside, and I was dominating. There were going to be times where I had to bang with him, and I definitely did. I took every punch that he threw at me. “He landed some great, clean shots on me, and he didn’t daze me one bit. The shot that did it was the body shot. I was trying to stand up from that body shot, but I couldn’t get my breath.” After the fight, Margarito made a surprise visit to Cintron’s dressing room to thank him for giving him a title shot. With the win, Margarito set up a much-anticipated July 26 showdown with Puerto Rican star Miguel Cotto. “Do I want Cotto to win?” Cintron said. “Yes, (because) he’s from the same country that I’m from. But a fighter like Margarito, he took every shot that I threw at him. Cotto is going to have a hard time in there with him. “I think Margarito will stop Cotto.” •Contact Don Stewart at 610-371-5065 or dstewart@readingeagle.com http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=90475