Boxing Champ Kermit Cintron Willing to Fight in the UFC
by Dann Stupp on May 09, 2007 at 4:49 pm ET
IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron is willing to accept the challenge that UFC president Dana White recently issued to Floyd Mayweather Jr.
In the days leading up to his pay-per-view bout with Oscar De La Hoya last weekend, Mayweather made disparaging remarks about UFC fighters, claiming that not only were his MMA counterparts less athletic, but that any boxing champion could easily transition into the UFC and become a champion.
White told Mayweather to put up or shut up, offering the boxer a chance to fight UFC lightweight (155-pound) champion Sean Sherk. White even promised a lucrative fight purse. Mayweather, though, later apologized for the statements and said he wouldn't be fighting in the UFC anytime soon.
Cintron, however, is up for the challenge.
From Kevin Iole at Yahoo! Sports:
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."
The Puerto Rican-born 27-year-old didn't actually take up boxing until after a successful run in wrestling. He went undefeated his freshman year of high school in Pennsylvania but never made it to state. Nevertheless, his success in the sport earned Cintron scholarship offers from Ohio State and the University of Wisconsin. He ultimately went to Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology and finished 10th in the nation his freshman year. The wrestling team was disbanded after the season, though, and Cintron devoted his efforts to boxing.
Would the UFC and White accept the offer? It's hard to tell. By offering Mayweather a title shot, the UFC was trying to exploit boxing's "one-trick ponies," as White called them. Although Cintron hasn't seriously competed in wrestling in nearly a decade, he could surely shake off some rust and actually bring some ground skills to the Octagon.
It's impossible to know if those skills and his boxing prowess would be enough to seriously challenge a UFC champion under MMA rules -- and I doubt we ever get the chance to find out. No disrespect intended toward Cintron, but he just doesn't have the name recognition Mayweather does, and his upcoming bout with Matthysse won't garner the headlines that Mayweather vs. De La Hoya did.
Then again, the UFC -- and especially White -- aren't ones to back down from a challenge. Or the occasional novelty act.
http://mmajunkie.com/news/2312/boxer-kermit-cintron-willing-to-fight-in-the-ufc.mma
