By Dan Ambrose: Former WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin (31-0, 22 KOs) says he’ll be back in the ring in February or March of 2015 against an opponent still to be determined.
Quillin, 31 recently vacated his World Boxing Organization 160 pound title rather than face Matt Karobov in what would have been a good payday rumored to be $1.4 million. Instead of Quillin getting that fight, he’s sat idle for the past eight months without fighting.
Quillin missed out on a big payday, even though a big chunk of the money would have been beaten up by taxes and other training expenses. Losing that payday for nothing obviously can’t be seen as a good thing for Quillin.
Quillin, #2 WBA, #6 IBF, says he wants to face Daniel Jacobs, Andy Lee, Miguel Cotto or Gennady Golovkin in 2015. Of that bunch, Jacobs, one of the WBA middleweight champions, would seem like the most likely opponent. Cotto and Golovkin are likely guys that Quillin’s adviser Al Haymon will never choose to match him up against due to the inherent danger involved in facing them.
Quillin just doesn’t appear to be in the same league as Cotto and Golovkin, and a loss for him against either of them would be a big blow to Quillin’s career.
“That fight [against Jacobs] is a great idea,” Quillin said via thesweetscience.com. “Jermain Taylor is a good idea. Cotto, Golovkin, too.”
It would be interesting to see if Haymon would be willing to match Quillin with a puncher like Golovkin. You’d have to think that Haymon wouldn’t let Quillin get 3000 miles of a fighter like Golovkin. If Haymon isn’t going to match Quillin against Karobov, then it’s next to impossible seeing Haymon letting Quillin fight an even better fighter like Golovkin.
Quillin hasn’t fought since beating Lukas Konecny last April. In his brief stint as the WBO middleweight champion, Quillin pretty much played it safe in facing beatable guys like Gabriel Rosado, Konecny and Fernando Guerrero. There were no risky fights for Quillin, and when he was finally on the verge of facing a decent opponent with the chance of beating him, Quillin vacated his belt.
Jacobs is seen as a paper champion by a lot of boxing fans, and that would seem like a logical move for Quillin to take. There’s a lot less risk in facing him than someone like Cotto or Golovkin. Even Jermain Taylor might be too much of a risk for Quillin because Taylor can still punch a little.
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