By Scott Gilfoid: WBA super bantamweight champion Scott Quigg (26-0-2, 19 KO’s) will be defending his title against #13 WBO fringe contender Diego Silva (29-2-4, 15 KO’s) on November 23rd on the undercard of Carl Froch vs. George Groves at the Phones 4U Arena in Manchester, UK. It looks like Silva has downgraded his opposition after having survived a scare in fighting to a 12 round draw in his first defense of his title against Yoandris Salinas last October in London.
It’s not a good sign that Quigg couldn’t even beat a fighter like Salinas because this was someone that he was expected to beat or he at least should have been able to beat. It doesn’t say much about Quigg’s staying power as the WBA champion if he can’t even beat the likes of Salinas because it just means that he’s going to have major problems when he’s finally matched against Guillermo Rigondeaux in the future. Based on what I saw of Quigg in the Salinas bout, I don’t rate Quigg could enough to win one round against a talent like Rigondeaux.
Quigg is going from facing #2 Salinas to facing #13 Silva. What does that suggest? I get the feeling that Quigg’s promoter has decided to back him off completely from facing decent opposition and instead is looking to match him softly the way that Kell Brook is being matched against the likes of Vycacheslav Senchenko, Matthew Hatton, Carson Jones and Hector Saldivia rather than top quality guys like Keith Thurman and Marcos Maidana.
Quigg told Sky Sports “He [Silva] is a big threat. He is a totally different style to Yoandris Salinas. He is very unorthodox, which means you can’t read him. He doesn’t know what he is going to do next.”
It’s unclear why Saliva is getting a title shot against Quigg because Silva fought to a 10 draw in his last fight against Nestor Hugo Paniagua last June. I saw the fight and I had Paniagua winning by 4 rounds I didn’t see any of this so-called unorthodox fighting style coming from Silva as Quigg describes him. What I did see was a fighter with poor defensive skills getting nailed in the head over and over again for 10 rounds by Paniagua.
The last time that Silva fought a good opponent was in 2009 when he was stopped in the 3rd round by Fernando Montiel. Since then, Silva has fought less than dangerous opposition.
If Quigg isn’t going to step it up and face Rigondeaux then I’d at least like to see him fight guys like Montiel, Victor Terrazaz, Vic Darchinyan, and Wilfredo Vazquez Jr.
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