By Scott Gilfoid: WBO middleweight champion Andy Lee (34-2, 24 KOs) will be fighting Peter Quillin (31-0, 22 KOs) tonight in what was supposed to be Lee’s first defense of his World Boxing Organization world title at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Quillin failed to make weight at the weigh-in last Friday, meaning that the Lee-Quillin fight won’t have a title on the line tonight. Quillin has been out of the ring for an entire year, so you can’t blame him for coming in at 161.9 pounds at the weigh-in.
Quillin gave it all he could to try and take the weight off to make the 160 pound limit in the two hours that he was given to cut the weight. Unfortunately for him, he could only get down to 160.6.
“I am still happy that I can fight Andy but it is disappointing,” Quillin said. “I didn’t want to let down any of my fans or family who wanted me to get my title back. This won’t affect my confidence. Nothing will break me.”
Lee will have his work cut out for him in trying to become the first fighter to give the 31-0 Quillin his first loss. 31 fighters have tried and 31 have failed in attempting to beat Quillin. You can make an argument that Quillin has beaten better fighters than Lee in the past, and that’s why it’s going to be really tough on Lee tonight. He’s facing a huge talent who has yet to taste defeat. For Lee to beat Quillin, he’s probably going to need a knockout because Quillin’s boxing skills are probably too good for Lee. That’s just the way it is. No one out-boxes Quillin. Lee is going to have to go into this fight thinking knockout because if he tries to win by a decision, I see him going down to defeat.
Quillin, a New York native, will have the hometown advantage in this fight tonight. The crowd will definitely be on Quillin’s side and will be cheering each time he throws a punch. Quillin is one of those fighters who absorbs the energy from the crowd and it makes him better than he already is. For Lee to be able to negate that, he’s going to need to put a lot of pressure on Quillin to keep him from getting confident. It won’t be easy for Lee because Quillin is always ahead in his fights, and he’s got better hand speed and overall power. Lee has a good right hook, but that’s about it. Quillin has the same kind of power with both hands, and he’s able to deliver huge knockout blows from a variety of angles. He’s not someone that is totally reliant on one particular punch the way that Lee is with his offense.
It really doesn’t matter that the #2 WBO Quillin won’t have the chance of fighting for the WBO title tonight, because if he goes out and does his job by whipping Lee, he’ll soon be able to get a shot at the WBO title if that’s what he wants. It’s not as if Quillin will lose his ranking with the WBO or anything. Quillin will definitely be getting a title shot at the WBO belt either this year or next year if that’s what he wants. Personally, I think Quillin would be far better off fighting some of the other middleweight champions like Miguel Cotto, Gennady Golovkin or Daniel Jacobs. If Quillin wants to recapture his old WBO belt, he will eventually get a shot at that title, and he’s going to be a problem for whoever that is.
If Lee wins the fight tonight, he’ll be looking at defending his WBO strap against Billy Joe Saunders. Not a great fight in terms of interest from around the boxing world, but it’ll probably do well in the UK. Saunders is hardly a big star in Britain, but it’ll bring in decent ratings and a lot of fans.
“I am not banking on him [Quillin] being rusty but when you are fighting and making weight regularly, everything comes more naturally,” Lee said via the Dailymail.co.uk. “Being active as I have been is an advantage for me. I have lived and fought in the U.S for years so this holds absolutely no fears for me. Some fighters from the UK may look at coming to the States and be thinking what a big platform it is and that could weight on their minds,” Lee said.
I don’t think it really matters whether Lee is confident or not going into tonight’s fight against Quillin. At the end of the day if Lee doesn’t have the talent to win the fight, he can be as confident as he likes, but I still see him losing the fight. I mean, Lee needs the actual talent, not the confidence, if he wants to beat a guy as good as Quillin. Confidence and a lack of fear can only take you so far. You need to have the actual talent. It’s nice that Lee was able to beat junior middleweight John Jackson and middleweight contender Matt Korobov lately in come from behind wins, but we’re talking about guys that are clearly not in the same league as Quillin. That’s why it really doesn’t matter that Lee was able to beat them because they’re not up there with Quillin in terms of skills.
Lee, 30, hasn’t said what his game plan will be for tonight’s fight, but my guess it has something to do with Lee looking to land his right hook. That’s the best weapon that Lee has in his arsenal, and the one that he uses frequently to bail him out of tough situations where he’s getting beaten. The thing is I think Quillin is going to be ready to negate the right hook tonight, and that’s going to put Lee in a situation where he’s going to need to come up with other tools if he wants to get the job done against Quillin.
Also on tonight’s Premier Boxing Champions card on NBC are the following fights:
Danny Garcia vs. Lamont
Felix Diaz vs. Gabriel Bracero
Errol Spence Jr. vs. Samuel Vargas
Viktor Postol vs. Jake Giuriceo
Heather Hardy vs. Renata Domsodi
Marcus Browne vs. Aaron Pryor Jr.
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