By Allan Fox: Former WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin (31-0-1, 22 KOs) will be fighting next month against little known 2nd tier fighter named Michael Zerafa (17-1, 9 KOs) in a scheduled 10 round bout on September 12th on free television on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC Sports from the Foxwoods Resort, in Mashantucket, Connecticut.
This is a stay busy fight for the 32-year-old Quillin to likely get him ready for a world title shot against WBA “regular” middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs in either late 2015 or early 2016 in the battle of Brooklyn between them.
Zerafa has one loss on his resume in getting beaten by Arif Magomedov last year in October in a one-sided decision loss. Other than that one fight, Zerafa has done well during his career in beating the weak opposition that he’s been matched against. For the most part, Zerafa management has been very careful in the types of fighters that they’ve matched him up against. He’s only fought one good fighter during his career in facing Magomedov last year, and he lost every round of that fight.
“BREAKING: JUST ANNOUNCED on At the Fights: @KID CHOCOLATE vs. Michael Zerafa at @FoxwoodsCT Sept 12 for @premier boxing on @NBC Sports! #boxing,” said SiriusXM Boxing.”
Quillin has fought once in the past year after he vacated his WBO 160lb title. Quillin beat Lukas Konecny by a 12 round unanimous decision in April 2014. After that fight, Quillin didn’t fight again until last April when he fought to a 12 round draw against WBO middleweight champion Andy Lee in a non-title fight.
Quillin not surprisingly failed to make the 160lb limit in that fight, so Lee’s WBO title wasn’t on the line for that fight.
It’ll be a real surprise if Quillin is able to make weight for his fight against Zerafa, but I guess that really doesn’t matter because it’s just a non-title fight, so Quillin can probably come into the fight weighing well above the 160lb limit. If Quillin can’t make weight for the middleweight division any longer than he’s going to have to bite the bullet an move up to super middleweight to try and make something happen in that weight class.
If Quillin goes after the right champion, he might be able to win a world title in the 168lb division. He’s be better off going for WBO champion Arthur Abraham, IBF champion James DeGale or WBC champion Baou Jack. Those are all guys that Quillin would have a decent chance of beating.
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