By Dan Ambrose: Former WBO 160lb champion Peter Quillin (32-0-1, 23 KOs) will be challenging WBA World middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (30-1, 27 KOs) on December 5th in a fight televised by Showtime Championship Boxing in the “Battle of Brooklyn” from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
This is officially a title fight, but it’s difficult to see this as involving a real title rather than one of the minor trinkets. The World Boxing Association fouls things up by having three world champions at 160, and none of them are considered to be in the class of Gennady Golovkin, Miguel Cotto and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
For Jacobs, this will be his third consecutive voluntary defense since he won the title last year in beating Jarrod Fletcher to win the vacant WBA title last year. Jacobs has beaten Caleb Truax and Sergio Mora in voluntary defenses. It’s unclear when or if the World Boxing Association is going to push Jacobs to defend against his No.1 contender Chris Eubank Jr.
The Quillin-Jacobs fight is still a good decent fight between contender level fighters rather than championship level fighters in my view. It’s description of being called the “Battle of Brooklyn” is somehow fitting for the fight because it’s more of a regional title thing rather than a world title in my view. I see it as a local championship.
It’s hard to see Jacobs and Quillin as being up there with the likes of Golovkin, Cotto or Canelo. Those fighters have too many weak opponents on their resumes, and not enough quality to rate them as the top guys. That’s why it’s so perfect that it’s being called the “Battle or Brooklyn.”
Jacobs-Quillin tickets go on sale next week on October 6th. They can be purchased at www.ticketmaster.com, www.barclayscenter.com or by calling 1-800-745-3000.
Quillin, 32, comes into the fight with the 28-year-old Jacobs off of an ugly 5th round knockout victory over Michael Zerafa on September 12th. It was a match-up that was just a very poor one the moment the fight was made due to Zerafa being so far out of his class.
When you have a fighter in Quillin’s case, you normally don’t feed them 3rd tier opposition like Zerafa at this point in their career. The match-up was senseless and a really bad product for the boxing fans that watched it at home. In his previous fight against WBO middleweight champion Andy Lee, Quillin fought to a 12 round draw in a fight that he ran out of gas in the last six rounds. Quillin knocked Lee down twice in the first six rounds, but then Lee came back to knock Quillin down in the 8th round.
The Quillin vs. Jacobs fight is a tossup. Both guys are flawed fighters with padded records against lesser opposition. Jacobs has arguably only fought one good fighter in his career in Dmitry Pirog in 2010, and he was stopped by him in the 6th round. Jacobs has won his last 10 fights, but against weak opposition. In his last two fights, he’s beaten Sergio Mora and Caleb Truax, a couple of fringe contenders.
It’s kind of surprising that Jacobs’ adviser Al Haymon is putting him in with a good opponent in Quillin, because there’s a good chance that he’ll lose, but Haymon also manages the career of Quillin. The loser of the fight will likely be targeting the winner of the Andy Lee vs. Billy Joe Saunders fight rather than looking to go after the IBF or WBC titles, because Gennady Golovkin will likely be capturing both of those belts outright very soon. It’s not likely that Haymon will have Quillin or Jacobs fight a puncher like Golovkin because it would have a potentially disastrous ending for them.
Quillin gave up his WBO middleweight title last year after beating Lukas Konecny in April of 2014. Quillin would have had to fight his No.1 WBO mandatory challenger Matt Korobov, but instead he vacated his WBO title and sat out of the sport for entire year. It kind of an odd thing for Quillin to do considering that the top fighters have such a short shelf life, but I suppose he felt it was worth it. The time out of the ring obviously didn’t help him, because he failed to beat Andy Lee in his first fight back, and then he wasted a fight against the little known Zerafa.
“This is a can’t-miss, pick’em fight between two of the best middleweights in the world,” said promoter Lou DiBella. “This is truly the battle of Brooklyn, with both Danny and Peter possessing the power to create fireworks in an explosive night. SHOWTIME will truly be ending 2015 with a bang…or many of them.”
It would be great if the winner of the Quillin vs. Jacobs fight were to face one of the good middleweights in the division like Golovkin, David Lemieux, Canelo or Cotto, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. I suspect the winner of the Quillin-Jacobs fight will continue to defend against guys like Truax and Sergio Mora rather than taking on the bigger name fighters. I suppose that’s a good thing for them, because Jacobs or Quillin can hold onto the WBA “regular” title for a long time if they never take on any real big risky fights besides them facing each other in New York.
“There is no doubt this is going to be one of the biggest fights Brooklyn has ever seen,” said Jacobs. “Peter and I go back a long time, but this is business. I’m the champion and he’s the challenger. I’m going to do everything I can to win on December 5 and show the world that I’m the best Brooklyn has to offer.”
Being the best in Brooklyn isn’t a big deal. Jacobs should be trying to become the best middleweight in the world rather than the best in a part of New York.
Jacobs was recently involved in a strange fight with the past his best Sergio Mora. Both fighters were knocked down in the 1st round. In the 2nd round, Mora was knocked down once again. While falling down, Mora suffered an ankle injury and the fight had to be stopped.
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