By Dan Ambrose: WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin (31-0, 22 KO’s) says he’d like nothing better than to face WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (29-0, 26 KO’s) in a unification fight as soon as possible. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer says he’s waiting for an offer from Golovkin’s promoters at K2 Promotions. However, the one thing that could prevent the fight from ever taking place is the network obstacles. Quillin fights for Showtime, while Golovin fights on HBO. Getting one of them to allow their fighters to fight on their rival network may prove all but impossible.
“I’m right here, Let’s stop talking about it. Let’s f**** do it,” Quillin said. “Golovkin is supposed to be this big bad wolf. But the opponents that they get for him are not too much better than the guys that I am fighting. I’ll fight him. He’s a monster? I’ve never been scared of any monsters.”
It’s easy for Quillin to talk about wanting the fight when there’s very little chance of it happening, but you have to wonder whether Quillin would say yes to a fight against Golovkin if the fight had a chance of really happening.
“If Golovkin wants a fight with Peter, what they should do is make an offer. That will be a start,” Schaefer said.
The fact that Schaefer is putting the ball in Golovkin’s court instead of him making the first move is reminiscent of his dealings with Top Rank. By putting it on the other promoter, the fight never has to happen and then there’s no need to worry about his fighter potentially losing.
It’s a good thing for Golden Boy Promotions to have Quillin keeping the WBO 160lb title warm, because even if he never fights anyone remotely popular or good, he’ll have the belt handy for when former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez moves up in weight to the middleweight division to campaign as a middleweight.
At that point Golden Boy Promotions can match Canelo against Quillin for his WBO title and Canelo would have a very good chance of picking up a paper title the easy way against one of the more vulnerable, if not the most vulnerable, champion at 160. But if Schaefer willingly let Quillin fight Golovkin now, Quillin will likely be obliterated in 2-6 rounds by Golovkin, and then there won’t be the WBO strap handy for when Canelo eventually moves up in weight to the middleweight division. It’s very likely that Canelo will be moving up in weight soon, because his fight against WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara on July 12th will be Canelo’s second consecutive fight where he won’t be fighting in the junior middleweight division.
The fight will take place at 155, which will make it easier for Canelo to make weight. After making 155 for his last fight against Alfredo Angulo last March, Canelo ballooned up to 175lbs for the fight. That’s a pretty good sign that Canelo needs to be fighting in the middleweight division, if not the super middleweight division. But having Quillin hold down the WBO middleweight title for Canelo, it will set up an in house Golden Boy fight for the WBO title in the near future.
That’s why it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see a Quillin vs. Golovkin fight, even though Quillin is saying he wants the fight against Golovkin each time he’s asked. Quillin may want the Golovkin fight, but that doesn’t mean that it will ever happen.
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