Quillin still hasn’t signed contract for Korobov fight

By Boxing News - 09/01/2014 - Comments

quillin653By Dan Ambrose: WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin (31-0, 22 KOs) still hasn’t signed his portion of the contract for a November 1st title defense against his #1 WBO challenger Matt Korobov (24-0, 14 KOs), according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Korobov signed his portion of the contract last week, and they’ve been waiting ever since for Quillin to sign his side.

Quillin’s wife just had a baby, and he’s been given an extension until this Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. ET. If Quillin fails to sign the contract to fight his mandatory challenger, then he’ll likely be stripped of his title by the World Boxing Organization.

There’s some speculation that Quillin’s adviser Al Haymon either has someone else he’d prefer Quillin to fight or there’s something in the contract that isn’t too his liking. However, he’s still not contacted Roc Nation Sports, the company that won the purse bid for the fight with a winning bid of $1,904,840. They’re waiting to hear what Quillin is going to do next.

It makes little sense for him not to take the fight because it would be a career high payday for him. There isn’t any other fights out there that would give Quillin a similar payday. If he fights WBA champion Daniel Jacobs, he’ll need to get permission by the WBO to bypass Korobov to make the fight happen. At this point with the purse bid always having taken place, it’s unclear whether Quillin could even try for a unification fight. It seems that’s a move that should have taken place before the purse bid, not after.

The Quillin-Korobov fight is supposed to be taking place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Roc Nation Sports is making it easy for Quillin by having the fight take place in his hometown of Brooklyn.

“They have been very quiet, which is unusual with this kind of purse on the table,” said Roc Nation Sports president Michael Yormark to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. “We don’t understand why they haven’t rushed to sign this contract or ask for changes to move this fight forward. We’re not sure. We’re puzzled. We’re very curious. With Top Rank, there was 100 percent cooperation. With Golden Boy, there seems to be indifference.”

Quillin hasn’t faced a really good fighter yet during his career, and Korobov would be a considerable leap up from the guys that Quillin has been matched up against in fights against the likes Fernando Guerrero, Lukas Konecny and Gabriel Rosado.

In looking at how poor Quillin looked against Rosado and Konecny, I would have serious concerns about him fighting Korobov if I were his manager. I’d want to make sure that I felt confident he was going to win that fight before I agreed to it, and I don’t know that Quillin could beat a guy like Korobov. This guys is really solid and has the kind of power and defense that would give Quillin potential headaches.

It might be better for Quillin to lose his WBO title by having it stripped from him, and then facing WBA champion Daniel Jacobs for his strap. Jacobs is pretty flawed, and Quillin would have a better than average chance of beating him.



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