Peter Quillin v Gaberial Rosado: WBO Middleweight Title

By Boxing News - 10/21/2013 - Comments

quillin52By Sevak Sarkisian: On October 26th at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City NJ, Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin (29-0 21 KO’s) will defend his WBO middleweight title against contender Gabe “The King” Rosado (21-6 13 KO’s). The bout will be televised live on Showtime and will be part of the Hopkins/Murat undercard.

In my humble opinion, this match-up has great potential to steal the show on this card. Even though Quillin is the defending WBO middleweight world champion, Gabe Rosado looks to be his stiffest test to date. Rosado has suffered his share of losses but he holds quality wins over Kassim Ouma, Shechew Powell and Saul Roman. Rosado’s first fight at middleweight took place almost a year ago against reigning WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin.

At the time, Rosado was still a natural jr.middleweight and was being dominated throughout the whole fight until it was stopped. However, Rosado was remembered for his brave effort in that fight and because of that his stock went up despite suffering a brutal loss. Since then, Rosado had an extremely close fight against undefeated middleweight contender J’Leon Love. It was a fight that most fans believed Rosado should have won despite the decision being awarded to Love. Eventually the decision was overturned to a “no contest” after Love tested positive for a banned substance. Gabe has been repeatedly stating in his interviews lately that he feels like a real middleweight now and size is no longer a disadvantage for him at the weight. He has a good trainer in his corner by the name of Billy Briscoe from Philadelphia and a great mentor/sparring partner in Bernard Hopkins. The timing for Gabe to win this world title is perfect as he will be in front of a hometown crowd in Atlantic City.

Rosado possesses decent boxing skills and is always a games fighter that gives his best effort each time out. He is battle tested and has much better experience at the higher level than Peter Quillin. However, his best work was done at jr. middleweight and he doesn’t seem to be as effective at middleweight even though he seems like he has grown into the weight class. Gabe was never known to have devastating punching power and I believe it’s less of a factor in the middleweight division. His punch resistance is also questionable considering the fact that he has been stopped twice in his career.

Peter Quillin on the other hand is a fighter who doesn’t have polished skills but possesses some raw talent, good size and some athletic ability. However, in my humble opinion he hasn’t faced anyone of relevance in the sport of boxing despite winning the WBO title. His biggest win is against future Hall of Famer Winky Wright who at the time was coming off of two losses and had been retired for some time before he fought Quillin. This fight against Rosado is Quillins first real test. This is the biggest stage both these fighters have been on and many questions regarding both fighters will be answered this Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall.



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