Quillin Defeats Miranda, Fails To Impress

By Boxing News - 06/13/2008 - Comments

quillin4866.jpgBy Michael Lieberman: Undefeated super middleweight prospect Peter Quillin (19-0, 14 KOs) had great difficulty beating hard-hitting Colombian Dionisio Miranda (19-2-2, 18 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision on Wednesday night at the Hard Rock Times Square, in New York City, New York. Quillin, 24, nicknamed “Kid Chocolate,” won most of the early rounds of the fight and appeared to be cruising along in the 7th, when the powerful Miranda (no relations to the knockout artist Edison Miranda, also a Colombian) hurt Quillin with a powerful left-right combination that sent Quillin, now badly stunned, retreating to the ropes where Miranda unloaded on Quillin with 14 consecutive unanswered punches.

However, Miranda soon punched himself out, which allowed a badly shaken Quillin to survive the round. Quillin would recover well in the 8th, and fight effectively in the remaining 9th and 10th rounds of the fight. The final judges’ scores were 97-92, 97-92 and 97-93.

Before the fight, Quillin had been one of the most highly hyped fighters in boxing, with many fans and writers giving him an excellent chance at winning a title one day. Though Quillin may still end up winning a title, he sure showed a heck of a lot of vulnerabilities against Miranda, starting with his less than impressive defense. Miranda, not a particularly accurate puncher, was able to land often with big head shots. Quillin rarely was able to block any of them, unless you want to count blocking with his head. Quillin appeared to treat his offense as his defense, thinking that he could simply out-slug Miranda.

The problem with that, however, is that Miranda, a virtual unknown until this fight, was the much better puncher of the two, and Quillin seemed to be playing into his hands by trying to slug it out with him. In the earlier rounds, when Quillin had a lot of energy and was very active, it wasn’t too much of a problem. Yet, by the 4th round, Miranda began to land more and more of his heavy right hands, which seemed to cause Quillin to back off ever so slightly, as if he didn’t want to have to taste too many more of Miranda’s huge punches. In particular, Miranda landed one especially huge right hand in the 4th that caused Quillin’s head to snap back violently, sweat flying across the ring, and I thought to myself, ‘how did Quillin take the shot without going down?’

He may have taken it well, but it caused Quillin to not only back completely off, but also stop punching pretty much. This trend continued into the 5th round, as Miranda totally dominated the round with his much better work rate. Miranda was winding up with some really big shots in the round, and some of the ones that missed, I’m almost certain would have knocked Quillin out if they connected. Lucky for Quillin, they didn’t, but more than enough did, enough to make Quillin look anything like a top prospect. Indeed, Miranda, a virtual Diamond in the rough, looked to me to be the better prospect of the two. Not only was he the much harder puncher, but he also had longer range and moved better than Quillin.

Miranda continued to control the fight through the 6th, and into the 7th round, the round in which Miranda clubbed Quillin with a hard combination, stunning him and sending him back pedaling to the ropes. Miranda then spent the remainder of the round punching Quillin silly, hitting him with some real howitzer shots. If not for the fact that Miranda punched himself out, Quillin would have been history. As it was, Quillin took massive punishment in the round and looked on the verge of being knocked out for the entire round.

In rounds eight through ten, Quillin turned to boxing Miranda, which was a major departure for him because Quillin is known for being mostly a slugger, yet Miranda turned Quillin into a defensive fighter for the remaining three rounds of the fight. Quillin showed a good jab in the remaining rounds, and protected his chin well, staying out of range and covering up tight to weather the storm of Miranda’s occasional right hand bombs.

In the final round, Quillin, seeing that the fight was nearly over, got kind of cocky once again, throwing punches with abandon like he had in the earlier rounds. It was kind of funny, though, because as soon as Miranda opened up with a huge right hand, Quillin scurried away like a scalded dog. He looked good, except when he was being attacked by Miranda, which had the effect of turning Quillin to a less than impressive fighter.

I can’t says I was too impressed with Quillin. He looked good at times, mostly when he was on offense, but he looked very mediocre when being pressed hard by Miranda. In a lot of ways, Quillin reminded me of a poor man’s Jeff Lacy. He has good power, but is a shade below Lacy in terms of power, defense and overall boxing skill. If I was Quillin or his management, I would go back to the drawing board and have him learn the fundamentals a little more. He also needs to take things slower, fight gradually against better fighters before tacking a top 10 fighter. At this point, I’m not so sure he could beat any top 15 fighter, much less a champion.