Quillin: I want Sergio Martinez next

By Boxing News - 10/27/2013 - Comments

quillin-rosado-resultsBy Eric Thomas: WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin (30-0, 22 KO’s) successfully defended his title with a 10th round TKO last night over Gabriel Rosado (21-7, 13 KO’s), but you have to say that Quillin’s stock dropped considerably with the win. The fight was stopped due to a cut over the left eye of Rosado, who was more than game to continue fighting. Quillin, however, didn’t seem excited about the prospects of giving Rosado a rematch when asked after the fight by Jim Gray of Showtime. Quillin says that it’s Al Haymon who sets up his fights.

When asked if he would like to fight WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez next, Quillin said “Of course I want Sergio Martinez next.”

Martinez isn’t going to fight Quillin next or ever because it’s not a big money fight for him. It would be a less paying fight than if he were to fight Martin Murray again. Quillin doesn’t have the fan base in the United States to make it worthwhile for Martinez to use up a fight on him. Martinez can make more money facing Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Andre Ward, Miguel Cotto or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Fighting Quillin is the last on Martinez’s last and Quillin should know that.

Quillin seemed kind of defensive during the entire interview for some reason, maybe because he was booed the entire time by the fans who were unhappy with the fight being stopped.

Like usual, Quillin didn’t mention wanting a fight against WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin. Rosado was torn apart by Golovkin earlier this year in a 7th round stoppage win and was a much more one-sided fight than last night’s fight between Quillin and Rosado. Quillin showed fear in his face from the 4th round on after getting hurt by a right hand from Rosado. After that experience, Quillin was on his bike and in a constant retreat mode for the last 6 rounds of the fight.

The judges had Quillin ahead 90-80, 87-83 and 89-91 at the time the fight was stopped in the 10th due to Rosado’s big cut over his left eye, but the fight looked much closer than those were. Maybe it was because of Quillin’s body language or his constant retreat mode that made the fight look so much closer.

Quillin needs to start facing better opposition if he wants to win respect from fans because he’s been underwhelming so far as the WBO champion with his two title defenses coming against Fernando Guerrero and junior middleweight Rosado. Quillin should agree to fight Golovkin and then might win some fans or lose them depending on how things go for him.

I don’t think Quillin would do well at all against Golovkin. If Rosado was able to hurt Quillin and put him on the run for the last two-thirds of the fight, then Golovkin would destroy Quillin easily. I think Quillin would be lucky to make it past the 5th round against Golokin even if he were in the full retreat mode like he was in last night after getting hurt by Rosado.



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