By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten super middleweight contender Peter Quillin (24-0, 18 KO’s) stopped contender Jesse Brinkley (35-7, 22 KO’s) in the 3rd round on Friday night in a scheduled 10 round bout at the Reno Events Center in Nevada. Brinkley, 27, one of the fighters trained by Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, California, was able to hurt the 34-year-old Brinkley with a big right hand in the 3rd round and then continue to pummel him with straight rights until referee Joe Cortez jumped in between them and halted the bout while Brinkley was taking punishment in the corner.

The official stoppage was at 2:34 of the 3rd. Quillin hurt Brinkley earlier in the fight in the 1st round when Quillin landed a chopping right hand that landed towards the back of Brinkley’s head, causing him to stagger. Quillin quickly jumped on him and attempted to take him out with a flurry of shots. However, Quillin smothered his own punches by getting in too close to Brinkley and was unable to come up with a finishing shot.

In the the 2nd round, Quillin staggered Brinkley again with a big right hand and mostly dominated the action using that punch alone. Brinkley had no problems landing his shots, as Quillin’s defense was rather porous. However, Quillin continued to give Brinkley problems with his big right hands. In the 3rd, Quillin again landed a big right hand that staggered Brinkley. He then finished Brinkley off this time with a storm of shots until referee Cortez had seen enough and stepped in between them.

While it was nice that Quillin got the win, he showed zero ability to fight in close. He had no power when Brinkley came inside and was a sitting duck for his shots. Luckily for Quillin, Brinkley didn’t attempt to press the issue in close. However, this is an area where other fighters will definitely take advantage of Quillin by moving inside and battering him. Quillin also doesn’t seem to have much of a left hand to speak of. He has a good right hand and that’s about it. His left isn’t anything to worry about and he doesn’t have a very good jab. It’s more of a pawing jab. All in all, I see Quillin as a one punch fighter. If you get in close, you take away Quillin’s only weapon. Someone like Andre Ward would eat Quillin up on the inside, as would Glen Johnson.