Former welterweight champions Paul Williams, Kermit Cintron to fight May 8
Former world welterweight champions Paul Williams and Kermit Cintron have finalized negotiations for a May 8 junior-middleweight bout at Home Depot Center in Carson, Williams’ promoter Dan Goossen told The Times on Friday.
Williams (38-1, 27 knockouts) has fought four of his last seven bouts in Southern California, defeating Antonio Margarito in a 2007 bout at Home Depot. Puerto Rico’s Cintron (32-2-1, 28 KOs) has lost only to Margarito.
The bout will come one week after unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. fights Pomona’s world welterweight champion Shane Mosley in Las Vegas, and could position the Williams-Cintron winner for a shot at either a victorious Mayweather or, less likely, Manny Pacquiao should those sides fail again to strike a deal for a mega-fight.
If Mosley wins May 1, Mayweather has the right to invoke a rematch clause.
Even though Williams is coming off a December majority-decision victory over world junior-middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, and was previously involved in negotiations to fight middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, Goossen has described his fighter as “a true 147-pounder looking to get back to [the welterweight limit] 147.”
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