Jacobs: I’ll definitely give Quillin a rematch

By Boxing News - 12/06/2015 - Comments

Daniel Jacobs vs Peter Quillin(Photo credit: Esther Lin/SHOWTIME) By Dan Ambrose: It didn’t take very long for rematch talk to begin between Al Haymon fighters WBA middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (31-1, 28 KOs) and Peter Quillin (32-1-1, 23 KOs) following their fight tonight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Jacobs stopped Quillin by a somewhat controversial 1st round stoppage in front of 8,442 fans in their battle of Brooklyn.

Without a rematch, Jacobs would have to move on after this fight and face what could be a very difficult fight against the winner of the Gary O’Sullivan vs. Chris Eubank Jr. fight, but it looks like Jacobs and Quillin could wind up facing each other again in a second fight if their manager Al Haymon can smooth things over with the World Boxing Association to have an immediate rematch between them.

“I definitely would give him a rematch,” Jacobs said to ESPN.com. “I want to fight the best out there but I’m willing to fight him next if that’s what the fans want. He’s fighting for the same things I’m fighting for.”

It’s not really up to Jacobs and Quillin whether the two of them can face each other a second time. It’s going to be up to the WBA, because Jacobs’ mandatory defense is due. He’s already had three voluntary defenses since winning the WBA title last year with a win over Jarrod Fletcher. Jacobs has defended his title against Caleb Truax, Sergio Mora and Quillin.

All three of those fights were voluntary defenses. Fighters are only supposed to have two voluntary defenses before having to face their mandatory. If Jacobs fights Quillin in an immediate rematch, he would have four consecutive voluntary defenses.

“Once I had him hurt, I was thinking to myself, ‘Oh, my God, ref stop the fight,'” Jacobs said. “The best man won today. I was able to catch him with the right. I saw his eyes and it looked like his equilibrium was off. I’m not a referee, but if I was I probably would have still given him another opportunity [to continue].”

Quillin almost fell down right before stumbling across the ring. The referee Harvey Dock stopped the fight because he was on top of the action and saw how Quillin had staggered across the ring before stopping on shaky legs. Jacobs gave Quillin a break by not chasing after him to nail him with a shot to finish him. If Jacobs had stayed with Quillin while he was staggering across the ring, he would have knocked him down easily and finished him.

I don’t want to see a rematch between Quillin and Jacobs. When you get stopped the way that Quillin was stopped, the two fighters should move on instead of holding the WBA title for ransom and just facing each other over and over again without defending it against the mandatory challengers. I want to see the winner of the O’Sullivan vs. Eubank Jr. get a shot at Jacobs because it’s only fair. If Jacobs wants to keep fighting Quillin, he can do it after facing the winner of the Eubank Jr-O’Sullivan fight.



Comments are closed.