The junior middleweight fight between Paul Williams and Kermit Cintron had the potential to cause major changes in THE RING’s ratings had it played it out to a decisive finish.

Had Williams knocked out Cintron or defeated his fellow former welterweight titleholder by 12-round decision, the current middleweight contender would have regained a high ranking in THE RING’s 154-pound ratings. His goal is to once-again be a factor at welterweight, where the sport’s two biggest, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, reside. A junior middleweight ranking would have brought Williams closer to that aim.

Had Cintron defeated Williams he likely would have assumed the No. 1 spot in the junior middleweight ratings as well as a place among THE RING’s Pound-for-Pound top 10, where Williams currently holds the No. 7 spot.

However, Saturday’s showdown was cut short when Cintron tripped over the feet of Williams and literally dived out of the ring at the start of the fourth round, bringing about bizarre and premature ending to a fascinating matchup that was just beginning to heat up.

“THE RING considers the Paul Williams-Kermit Cintron fight as virtually a non-event,” said Nigel Collins, Editor-in-Chief of THE RING magazine. “Both fighters will retain the same ranking as before the fight: Williams is No. 2 at middleweight and Cintron No. 2 at junior middleweight.”

The same night that Williams and Cintron faced off, a common foe of the two, Antonio Margarito, made his ring return in Mexico, soundly outworking Robert Garcia to a lopsided 10-round decision. It was the former welterweight beltholder’s first bout since being stopped by Shane Mosley last January and then stripped of his U.S. boxing license for attempting to load his hand wraps before that fight.

The victory over Garcia, which took place at junior middleweight, was impressive given Margarito’s inactivity and the brutally one-sided nature of his TKO loss to Mosley, however, his hardnosed opponent was not regarded highly enough for him to earn a RING ranking.

“Even though Antonio Margarito returned to action with a decision over Roberto Garcia, he remains unranked,” said Collins. “The vast majority of Margarito’s significant victories were at welterweight and the Garcia win, at junior middleweight, was not enough to gain entry into the 154-pound division.”

While the junior middleweight rankings remained unchanged following the weekend, there was minor movement in the lighter weight classes of THE RING ratings:

JUNIOR LIGHTWEIGHTS:

Argenis Mendez enters at No. 10 on the strength of his close decision win over Martin Honorio (No. 10 last week). Honario exits.

JUNIOR BANTAMWEIGHTS:

Hugo Cazares (No. 4 last week) trades places with Nobuo Nashiro (No. 2 last week) thanks to Cazares’ 12-round decision over Nashiro.