By Jim Dower: American Peter Quillin (28-0, 20 KO’s) defeated WBO middleweight champion Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam (27-1, 17 KOs) by an exciting 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night to capture N’Dam’s World Boxing Organization 160 pound title at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Quillin knocked N’Dam down six times in the fight, 2 times in the 4th, 2 times in the 6th and 2 times in the 12th to seal the victory. The final judges scores were 115-107, 115-107 and 115-107.

N’Dam fought well when he wasn’t getting knocked down and was actually outworking Quillin almost every round. Where N’Dam had a problem was that he didn’t have the power to hurt Quillin, otherwise this might have been a much different fight.

N’Dam came on late in the fight when Quillin stopped punching as much. Part of the reason for N’Dam’s success in rounds 8 through 11 was that he took the fight to the inside quite frequently and exposed Quillin’s lack of inside fighting ability. Had N’Dam fought more on the inside from the 1st round on, he might have stood a much better chance at winning the fight because Quillin’s power isn’t as dangerous when he’s fighting on the inside.

N’Dam simply couldn’t take Quillin’s left hook when the action was on the outside, as that was where N’Dam got in trouble over and over again in the fight. It’s surprising that N’Dam’s corner wasn’t pushing him to smother Quillin’s offense by taking the fight to the inside because that’s his major weakness besides the fact that he doesn’t throw combinations.

N’Dam’s hand speed seemed to give Quillin a lot of problems throughout the fight, as Quillin has previously been the faster fighter in past bouts but he wasn’t tonight.