By Scott Gilfoid: Saturday night’s Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) card on NBC will now involve two non-title fights at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The Andy Lee (34-2, 24 KOs) vs. Peter Quillin (31-0, 22 KOs) fight was supposed to have Lee’s WBO middleweight title at stake, but Quillin came in over the weight limit at 161.4 pounds.
Quillin reportedly attempted to take off the weight after being given two hours to melt it off, but he was unable to do so. As such, Lee’s World Boxing Organization title won’t be on the line for the fight.
In the Danny Garcia vs. Lamont Peterson fight, neither of their 140 pound titles will be on the line due to the fight being held at a catch-weight of 143 pounds. It’s a disappointment to some boxing fans because it’s going to be a fight at welterweight.
If the two fighter’s world titles aren’t going to be on the line, then Garcia might as well have fought a welterweight rather than dragging Peterson up to 143 for the fight. Garcia made weight at 142.2 and Peterson at 143.
Quillin, 31, made this statement via Fight News –
“What can I say? I didn’t make weight. I want to apologize to Andy Lee and to all my supporters and fans. I made every effort to make weight but it just wasn’t meant to be and I have no one else to blame but myself. I may not win a title tomorrow but I still have a fight to win and I still plan to put on a good performance. I promise to use this as a learning experience for the future. God bless.”
Quillin’s main focus will be on beating Lee so that he can stay undefeated. With a victory over Lee, it’s unknown where Quillin will go from there. My guess is he’ll be steered into a fight against either the winner of the Hassan N’Dam vs. David Lemieux fight or the winner of the Daniel Jacobs vs. Caleb Truax.
There’s a question whether Quillin can still make the middleweight limit comfortably. He’s been out of the ring for an entire year now since his last fight, and it could be that his body can no longer make the weight for the middleweight division.
If that’s the case then it could be bad news for Quillin with him having to move up to super middleweight to campaign at that weight. He can try and keep making weight at 160, but if his body can’t make the weight without him draining himself to the point where he’s weakened, then I think he should make the only choice he has in moving up to super middleweight.
One of Quillin’s main advantages in fighting at middleweight was his size. The 6’1” Quillin started his career out as a big super middleweight, but he moved down to 160 after struggling in one of his fights. It must have been hard for Quillin to make the middleweight limit all these years. But now that he couldn’t make weight, he might be forced to move up in weight if he has to struggle each time to make the 160 pound limit.
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