By Allan Fox: Unbeaten former WBO 160lb champion Peter Quillin (31-0-1, 22 KOs) will getting an easy tune-up out of the way on September 12th before he moves on to tougher fights like a possible title shot against WBA “regular” middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs later on.
Quillin will be fighting Michael Zerafa (17-1, 9 KOs) on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut. The Zerafa fight isn’t supposed to be competitive for the 32-year-old Quillin. It’s just a body for him to practice on to sharpen up while he gets ready or bigger fights ahead.
Quillin has missed so much time after sitting out of the ring for an entire year after he vacated his WBO middleweight title last year. Quillin didn’t come back until last April, when he missed weight in a title shot against WBO middleweight champion Andy Lee. Quillin’s time out of the ring showed, as he ran out of gas in the 2nd half of the fight and had to settle for a 12 round draw. Surprisingly, Quillin tasted the canvas in that fight after getting nailed by a big shot from Lee.
“I’m ready and excited to return to the ring on NBC on September 12,” said Quillin. “I’m already deep into training camp and preparing to be in the best shape of my career. I know my opponent is dangerous and he’s coming to make a name for himself. I’m at the top of my game and I plan to stay there.”
Quillin can’t afford to lose this fight because he wants to move forward to some bigger fights in the future. But then again, Quillin figured that he would beat Andy Lee in his last bout. Quillin’s stamina was exposed by Lee, as he really took over the fight in the last six rounds and had Quillin looking timid and afraid to mix it up.
Zerafa doesn’t have the same kind of punching power as Lee, so there’s reason for Quillin to be hesitant to attack him for as long as the fight lasts. However, if Quillin runs out of gas in this fight, then we could very well see Zerafa move forward and take the second half rounds like Lee did.
It’s hard to tell how much Quillin has left in the tank at this point. He’s not considered to be in the same league as guys like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Miguel Cotto and Gennady Golovkin in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans. We already saw that Quillin couldn’t beat Lee. But now there are younger fighters stepping up like Billy Joe Saunders, Chris Eubank Jr. and Arif Magomedov. Quillin might not have a place at all pretty soon other than perhaps as a contender like he is now.
The undercard of the Quillin-Zerafa fight has a much more interesting contest between IBF junior middleweight champion Cornelius Bundrage (34-5, 19 KOs) defending his title against arguably the better brother of the Charlo brothers in unbeaten Jermall Charlo (21-0, 16 KOs) in what should be a very interesting fight for as long as it lasts.
Charlo can really punch and he’s definitely got a future in the junior middleweight division. It’s going to be difficult for Bundrage to win this fight unless he gets to Charlo in the early rounds before the longer this fight goes the more it favors the younger 25-year-old Charlo. The only thing that Charlo has going against him in this fight is his lack of experience. He’s not faced the same level of opposition that Bundrage has so there’s a lot of unknowns about him at this point.
The 40-year-old Bundrage is a big puncher, but so is Charlo. This will be Bundrage’s first defense of his IBF 154lb title, and he’s hoping to do well. It’s a tough fight for Bundrage because Charlo is the type of fighter you want to take on when you’re younger, and Bundrage is clearly getting up there in age at this point in his career.
“This is my time, I’ve never been more ready for a fight,” said Charlo. “I’ve dreamed about a fight like this for a long time and it’s here in front of me. I will be spectacular and I will finish Cornelius Bundrage.”
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