| On Saturday night Kermit “The Killer" Cintron will make his HBO debut in a fight for the WBO welter weight title against Teddy Reid. At KINGS gym in Reading PA, I had a chance to speak with Kermit the day before leaving for Houston, and he offered the following on the fight, the experience of working at the historic Muhammad Ali training camp, and his preparation for Teddy Reid. |
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| AH:The bulk of your training for the Teddy Reid bout took place at the former Muhammad Ali training camp in Deer Lake PA. What was it like training there and how did the experience benefit you? |
| KC:Training at Ali’s camp was a great experience. It’s a quiet place with no distractions whatsoever. I mean, it was all about getting ready to fight Teddy Reid. Plus, being at the same place that Muhammad Ali trained for his biggest fights, it was inspirational. |
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| AH:Other then the fact that you went away, was there anything else you did different to prepare for this fight? |
| KC:The main thing was that we went away, other then the location everything else was the same. I sparred over a hundred rounds and ran 150 miles. That, in addition to intense workouts on the bags and pads daily, it was a good experience. |
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| AH:So one of your sparring partners was Ian MacKillop, a fighter you previously defeated and now he comes back for sparring. |
| KC:I appreciate the fact Ian came to camp to work with me, knowing that I beat him and he came to camp and went toe to toe with me that says a lot about his character. Ian is tough guy, real class act too. Some of the other sparring partners had to leave cause of injuries at least that’s what they said. I’m not saying that the other guys didn’t give me good work cause they did, but Ian was definitely the toughest one of all. |
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| AH:So how do you feel about fighting on HBO, this is a big time fight, are you nervous at all? |
| KC:I trained real hard for this fight, like I do all my fights. I’m not nervous about it. I don’t have time to be nervous about it. This is what I’ve been working for all this time. I’m ready to go out there and do what I gotta do to win the fight. |
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| AH:Ian MacKillop said that you are the hardest training fighter he has ever seen do you have any comments about that? |
| KC:Not really, I mean, I trust my trainers, they say hit the bag, I hit the bag. They say hit the sparring partners, I hit the sparring partners. Run, jump rope, hit the bags, train train train…. That’s what it takes to be world class so that’s what I do. I have a lot of confidence in my trainers we went down this road together. |
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| AH:So how do you see the fight turning out, you have any predictions? |
| KC:Nope, I don’t do predictions, I just know I’ll win. |
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| So off to Houston Team Cintron goes, good luck to Kermit Cintron, Marshall Kauffman, Joe Pastore, and Jason Kauffman. We’ll see you back at Kings Gym next week. |
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