By Jeff Aranow: Former middleweight champion Peter Quillin is looking forward to seeing tonight’s unification fight between WBA welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs) and WBC champion Danny “Swift” Garcia (33-0, 19 KOs) in their match on Premier Boxing Champions on CBS.
Quillin thinks the Garcia-Thurman fight is a match that could go either way depending on whether Garcia can land one of his big power shots. If there’s going to be a knockout in this fight, then Quillin sees Garcia being the one to get it. Quillin says that Thurman can be hurt, as he’s been hurt a number of ties in his fights.
Quillin says he’s never seen Garcia get hurt in a fight. Quillin wonders whether Thurman will be able to have success with his in and out stuyle of fighting. He thinks tht if Garcia times Quillin, he can atch him while he’s coming in to land his shots. It’s about timing, says Quillin. If Garcia can time Thurman properly, he can score a knockout like he did against Amir Khan in 2012.
“Yes, it does [end in a knockout,” said Quillin to Fighthub.com about tonight’s Garcia vs. Thurman fight. “These type of fighters aren’t going to lay back. They’re going to leave it all in the ring. When two punchers meet each other, an explosion is bound to happen. So you’re either going to see an exciting fight from round 1 to round 12 or you’re going to see one punching changing the whole [complexion of the fight]. We’ve never seen Danny get hurt like that. Have you ever seen Keith Thurman hurt? That’s why this fight was made to see whoever would capitalize on the other fighter’s weakness. We’ve seen Keith fight. We’ve seen him hurt. We’ve seen Danny have bad fights with boxers. This is to consider who the best in the welterweight division is. I think it’s possible [Thurman getting hurt], because we’ve seen it happen before. As a fighter, you’re always looking for a challenge to overcome. This is a fight where you’re going to be challenged at the highest level of your career. I like how Keith came out here looking like a Samoan. I like how Danny came out here quiet like he always do. I think Keith wins by a decision or Danny wins by a knockout,” said Quillin.
It’s a risky fight for both guys. Thurman has been taking risks lately with him fighting Shawn Porter last June and winning that fight by a 12 round decision. Garcia hasn’t faced a dangerous opponent since his fight with Lucas Matthysse in 2013 It should be interesting to see how well Garcia responds to the challenge from Thurman.
In speaking about Garcia’s ability to time his opponents, Quillin said, “When he sets, all he has to do is set at the right time. You know Keith comes in. He leaves himself open sometimes. He’s in and out. In and out, just like when [Amir] Khan was doing in and out. The whole time he was getting the better of Danny, and then he got caught. So it’s all about timing, which is the case most of the time. If Keith can be great at in and out, and capitalize on the moments he’s looking to have in the fight, he can come out the winner,” said Quillin.
Quillin’s career has slowed since he was knocked out in the 1st round by Daniel Jacobs in December 2015. Quillin didn’t fight at all in 2016, and he still hasn’t fought in 2017. It’s not good news that the soon to be 34-year-old Quillin doesn’t have a fight scheduled. He talked recently about moving up to super middleweight to fight at a catch-weight. That might be a good move for him. The most important thing is for Quillin to get active again.
If he burns through 2017 without fighting, then that would be 2 years that he’s been out of the ring. Quillin vacated his World Boxing Organization middleweight title after his win over Lucas Konecny after being ordered to fight Matt Korobov. Quillin was out of the ring for an entire year before returning to action against Andy Lee in April 2015 in fighting to a 12 round draw.