(Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime) By Allan Fox: Unbeaten middleweight contender Peter Quillin (27-0, 20 KO’s) will finally be off the leash on Saturday night when he faces undefeated WBO middleweight champion Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam (27-0, 17 KO’s) at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York, USA.

Quillin has been hyped for so long and yet he’s been held back for some reason and kept away from top quality opposition during his seven year pro career.

Quillin’s handlers took the slow approach after he was badly staggered in a win over Dionisio Miranda in 2008. Quillin has stayed unbeaten with the soft opposition that he’s been matched with since then, and yet his game hasn’t really developed beyond his fighting style against Miranda. Quillin is still a pot shot fighter who doesn’t throw combinations and he still can’t fight at all on the inside.

N’Dam has the skills to win this fight, but what could hurt him here is his weak chin and his poor stamina. To be able to take Quillin’s pot shot power shots you’ve got to have an excellent chin and N’Dam comes up short in that department. To make up for his lack of chin, N’Dam tends to move constantly around the ring while throwing jabs and quick combinations. He looks great in fights that don’t that last long, but for fights that go past the 6th round, N’Dam looks vulnerable as he fades badly. Both Giovanni Lorenzo and Avtandil Khurtsidze had N’Dam hurt in their fights with him. N’Dam beat both of them but he was far from impressive. He should have been able to beat both of them with ease if the was the real deal yet he struggled badly.

Quillin, 29, needs to make his move in this fight and pick up the WBO title because he’s not getting any younger and this might be his only chance to pick up a belt right now. He can’t beat WBC champion Sergio Martinez nor WBA/IBF champion Daniel Geale. Those guys are a class above Quillin, so he’s going to have to beat N’Dam or else he’ll be sitting around and waiting for ages for a title to open up.