By Dan Ambrose: #3 WBO Matt Korobov’s 10 round unanimous decision win over Jose Uzcategui last Saturday night earned the 31-year-old Russian fighter a title shot against WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin (31-0, 22 KO’s)
On Thursday the WBO ordered Quillin and Korobov’s management to begin negotiations with 30 days to get the fight negotiated or else it’ll go to a purse bid.
This is a fight presents both fighters with a huge step up in class. Quillin has had things pretty easy during his career with him facing mostly weaker opposition. His big wins have come against Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam, Jesse Brinkley, and Gabriel Rosado. He didn’t look great in any of those fights, including in his last fight against Lukas Konecny. .
Quillin has a shaky chin, and he seems to panic when he gets hit. Rosado had him hurt and on the run when their fight was halted in the 10th last year due to a cut. Konecny clearly bothered Quillin with his shots last April. Dionisio Miranda badly staggered Quillin in their fight in 2008, which took a lot of the shine off of Quillin’s career for a while.
Korobov is a really smart fighter with a solid chin, excellent power, and an ability to adapt to a lot of different style. Korobov’s amateur background in Russia led to him getting a lot of experience before he turned pro. His handlers have brought him a long very slowly, and it doesn’t seem to have helped him because his main problem after turning pro in 2008 was his stamina, and that doesn’t seem to have improved at all.
In his recent win over Uzcategui last Saturday night, Korobov showed the same stamina issues that he did when he turned pro, which means that they brought him along slowly for nothing. Korobov had the talent to hit the ground running from the moment he turned pro in 2008, and he should have been fighting high quality opposition since then because he’s no better off now than he was when he turned pro from what I can see of him.
I give Korobov an excellent chance of knocking Quillin out in this fight because he’s the better skilled fighter, and he’s definitely going to bother Quillin with his power. If Korobov can take Quillin’s power shots then he very likely will eventually get to him and knock him out.
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