Andy Lee vs. Peter Quillin: Decision, Scorecard and Reaction

By:  Bryan Mazique –

Credit:  Photos by Elsa/Getty Images /

If there was one word to use to describe the “Irish” Andy Lee (34-2-1) vs. Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin (31-0-1) bout, it would have to be: indecisive.

The two middleweights battled to a split-decision draw at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Saturday night, and it’s hard to argue with the judges’ decision. Boxing Channel has the official scorecards.

Lee came in as the WBO middleweight champion—a title Quillin held before vacating it—but Lee’s belt wasn’t on the line.

Quillin failed to make weight for the fight, per Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, thus making Saturday night’s scrap a non-title affair.

Early on, it looked as if Quillin was going to make quick work of Lee. Kid Chocolate dropped the champion with a hard right hand in the first round. Lee was hurt, but he survived though the waning seconds of the round, which saw him staggering in the corner.

Lee went down again in the third from a right hand, but that knockdown was as much caused by Quillin stepping on his foot as it was the punch that landed. Nevertheless, it was scored a knockdown. As it turns out, had Quillin not gotten that break, he would have lost the fight.

In the seventh, Lee put Quillin down for the first time in his career with a solid right hand on Kid Chocolate’s jaw. Quillin wasn’t badly hurt, but it was a legitimate knockdown. For whatever reason, Quillin‘s work rate slowed significantly after that and Lee became the aggressor.

Quillin did more posing than punching, and Lee used his inactivity as an opportunity to take control of the bout down the stretch. With a strong finish, Lee was able to erase Quillin‘s lead on two of the cards and earn the draw.

Quillin, on the other hand, should feel as though he gave this fight away. He was far too tentative most of the night. He respected Lee’s power to a fault. Lee had come in with huge one-punch knockouts in his last two bouts, and Quillin seemed to want no part of a firefight with the hard-punching Irishman.

Brian Custer of Showtime also thought Quillin squandered an opportunity.

“Quillin gave this fight away when he should’ve finished Lee when he had him hurt bad! Peter waits too long to counter.”

When asked about the decision, Lee seemed to think he deserved the decision, but Quillin sounded happy to escape per the quotes captured by Isaac Estrada of Real Boxing News:

“I thought it was a hard fight to score because he had the knock downs, but I outboxed.” Lee

“I’m not a judge. I can’t agree on something is not my job. The judges called it as they best saw it.” Quillin

A rematch certainly seems to be in order. The fight was entertaining, and many fight fans would probably be interested in seeing the two men settle things.

It would also give Quillin an opportunity to make weight, and thus try to regain the WBO title he never lost in the ring. There are certainly other 160-pounders pining for a shot at the WBO strap, but there’s unfinished business between Lee and Quillin. If not immediately, the two should fight again somewhere down the road.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2427944-andy-lee-vs-peter-quillin-winner-scorecard-and-reaction

NEW YORK CITY – Held prisoner because of the boxing network war,  undefeated World Boxing Organization (WBO) middleweight champion Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin (30-0, 22 KOs) is still searching for his career defining fight.

The 30-year-old Quillin, fighting out of Brooklyn, is the only top-rated 160-pounder aligned with Showtime.  The marquee-name middleweights, Sergio Martinez (WBC/Ring Magazine champion) and Gennady Golovkin (WBA), fight exclusively on rival HBO.

Quillin relishes the opportunity to fight any of the top rated middleweights, but he also understands the politics of boxing and the situation it has presently placed him in.  “It’s not up to me who I fight,” Quillin said.  “If the money is right, I’m up for fighting any of the top names, especially Martinez and Golovkin, but everybody’s aware of what’s going on behind the scenes (Showtime vs. HBO).  My job is to work hard and be ready.  I have the most powerful team in boxing (Golden Boy Promotions, adviser Al Haymon, co-managers John Seip and Jim McDevitt) and they get me the best available deals.  I’m not worried about who I’m fighting.  They come to me with my fights.”

Here’s how Quillin breaks down the top middleweights in the world, not listed in any particular order:

Sergio Martinez:  “He is the one everybody has as No. 1 in the middleweight division.  Martinez has fought some very exciting fights.  He’s a showman in the ring.”

Gennady Golovkin:  “A power puncher.  Golovkin brings power into the ring and gets a lot of knockouts.”

Darren Barker (IBF champion):  “He always puts his best foot forward and always tries as hard as possible.  Barker and I would bring a lot of fireworks into the ring.”

Daniel Geale:  “Another exciting fighter who bangs with the best.  It worked for a while against Barker.”

Felix Sturm:  “I haven’t seen too much of him.  I hope Sturm pursues more fights to make the middleweight division even tougher than it is right now.”

Martin Murray:  “He is determined and exciting.  I can’t take anything away from Murray.”

Peter Quillin:  “A very exciting guy always looking for new ways to win.  He has power, showmanship and a lot of smarts in the ring.”

Quillin recently overcame personal heartache in his second title defense victory, by 10th round technical knockout over a game Gabriel Rosado, who suffered a serious cut over his eye that resulted in the fight being halted on the advice of the ring doctor.  While he was in the middle of training camp in Los Angeles, Quillin’s wife, Allison, suffered a miscarriage five months into her pregnancy.  She was home in New York City.

“I struggled with it,” Quillin admitted.  “I was obligated to camp, 3000 miles away, and she had to go through it without me being there to comfort her.  We’re praying together and I’m working on being more compassionate.”

Quillin is already back in the gym, going through light workouts and yoga.  “I took a week off and bought my dream car (red Corvette Stingray),” he added.  “I get depressed when I’m not working out.  My wife goes to work and I’m all alone.  I need to be active to be productive, so I went right back into the gym.  My dad taught me how to clear my head. I’m staying ready and in shape, just in case the opportunity for my career defining fight comes along.”

http://www.boxingscene.com/quillin-on-martinez-golovkin-barker-geale-sturm–71390

by Cliff Rold

Sergio Martinez (51-2-2, 28 KO) remains the true Middleweight Champion of the World.

He may not be the best Middleweight in the world anymore.

In the span of eight days, we will see the two strongest ‘heirs apparent’ to his throne and either might be favored to beat the 38-year old Argentine right now.  The louder hype, for the moment, centers on Kazakhstan’s 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist Gennady Golovkin (27-0, 24 KO).  The 31-year old has been a professional since 2006 and will attempt his ninth defense of a WBA belt, and sixth defense of the IBO belt, against Curtis Stevens (25-3, 18 KO) in New York next Saturday.

This Saturday, the spotlight falls on the less hyped, but in many ways equally impressive, WBO titlist at 160 lbs.  30-year old Peter Quillin (29-0, 21 KO), fighting out of Brooklyn, turned professional in 2005 and has slowly developed into a dangerous fighter.  Borrowing a nickname from one of the greats of the 1930s, this “Kid Chocolate” has shown sweet potential in his last four fights.

He will attempt to defend his belt for the second time against Gabriel Rosado (21-6, 13 KO).  Quillin is expected to win.

The biggest question: if he does as expected, what will it look like?

When all else fails, boxing is a sport happy to promote based on comparison-shopping of the eyes.  Rosado challenged Golovkin in January of this year and, while defeated, gave a spirited account and lasted into the seventh round.  Reports of Golovkin battling the flu notwithstanding, if Quillin can dispose of Rosado earlier, easier, he will have a feather in his cap of what should be seen as the division’s real developing rivalry.

Quillin doesn’t have Golovkin in front of him this weekend.  Instead, he engages in what can best be called a proxy war.

It’s one he’d be well served to win.  The accomplishment gap between Golovkin and Quillin, in terms of quality wins, isn’t that wide.  The perception gap is.

Given the curt circumstances of the relationships between HBO and Showtime, perception matters for Quillin.  He’s in a tough spot.  Both Golovkin and Martinez are tied, for the moment, to HBO.  Most of the best action in the division this year has taken place on that network.  The action from 140-154 lbs. is well spread between the two networks.

In those divisions, Showtime is drawing from the deeper pool and has the premiere draw in the sport, Floyd Mayweather, on their side.  It’s not so from 160-68, where HBO also has the legitimate World Super Middleweight Champion Andre Ward on their side and has aired some of his better challengers as well.

Quillin could become one of the bigger victims of this whole mess.  To be the man, one eventually has to beat him and Quillin is a fighter who needs flexibility in networks that may not be available to him right away.

In lieu of that, the proxy wars he can win are of immeasurable value.  They are pathways to create public demand for him to be more than the Showtime side of the Middleweight bracket.  It’s not like he runs out of foes after Rosado, should he win this weekend.  Daniel Jacobs (26-1, 23 KO), a cancer survivor, is a great story.  Resurgent since returning to action in 2004 and a fellow New Yorker, he could make a fine challenger next year.

Up one class, Showtime will air the 168 lb. title fight between WBC titlist Sakio Bika (32-5-2, 21 KO) and Anthony Dirrell (26-0, 22 KO) in December.  A move up the scale isn’t out of the question.

Opponents can emerge.  They aren’t Martinez, Golovkin, and Ward.

Short of Mayweather moving up to Quillin to attempt a title in a sixth weight class, Quillin may want to root for Al Haymon stablemate Edwin Rodriguez (24-0, 16 KO) to upset Ward (26-0, 14 KO).  That could shift some scales.

For the time being, all he can do is win.  He’s done that against a fair set of recent foes.  A breakthrough stoppage of fringe contender Craig McEwan in 2011 announced him as a serious comer.  Subsequent wins that halted the comeback of “Winky” Wright, sent the capable Hasan N’Dam N’Jikam to the canvas five times for a title, and a dominant knockout of Fernando Guerrero elevated Quillin.

Compare those wins to the best Golovkin has posted.  Is there really that big a gap in quality between N’Jikam and Matthew Macklin?  Is beating a faded Wright less an accomplishment than beating a faded Kasim Ouma?  McEwan…Grzegorz Proksa…six of one, half dozen of another.

Where Golovkin has an edge is in the spectacular nature of some of his victories.  Quillin has a chance to try to be more spectacular this weekend.

Sergio Martinez might still be history’s Middleweight king, but in the ring there is every reason to believe the fight for best Middleweight in the world right now is Golovkin-Quillin.  Politics are in the way.

Quillin has to make his case bigger than the politics.

 http://www.boxingscene.com/peter-kid-chocolate-quillins-proxy-war–70931      

By Allan Fox: WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz (44-3, 25 KO’s) will be making his first defense of his WBO title this Saturday, July 13th, against #10 WBO, Yuzo Kiyota (23-3-1, 21 KO’s) at the Energie Verbund-Arena, in Dresden, Germany.

This is an optional title defense for the 32-year-old Stieglitz so he opted to take an easy fringe contender rather than a dangerous contender that might trouble him.

Stieglitz beat Arthur Abraham by a 4th round TKO last March to win the WBO super middleweight title back from him after having lost the belt last year to Abraham by a 12 round unanimous decision in August 2012.

Stieglitz and his trainer did a good job of doing their homework in studying Abraham’s fighting style and coming up with the perfect plan to beat him by coming out fast and unloading on him with nonstop punches until the fight was stopped because Abraham’s left eye had swollen completely shut.

Stieglitz won’t have to worry about coming up with any kind of perfect strategies to beat the 29-year-old Kiyota because he should be able to beat him just by showing up. The World Boxing Organization is the only sanctioning body that has Kiyota ranked in their top 15, and when you see that it tells you that there are major question marks about the talent for that fighter.

Kiyota hasn’t faced any quality fighters yet during his 11-year pro career. He’s been beaten three times in losses to Jameson Bostic, Norifumi Suzuki and Fukutaro Ujie.

If Stieglitz gets past Kiyota, he could be facing George Groves or another rematch with Abraham later this year. It’s likely he’ll choose not to face Groves yet, and instead will look to face Abraham again or go for another optional title defense.

If Stieglitz fights like he did last March against Abraham, he’d be tough for anyone in the super middleweight division to beat. He looked dramatically improved in that fight.

http://www.boxingnews24.com/2013/07/robert-stieglitz-vs-yuzo-kiyota-this-saturday-july-13th-in-dresden-germany/

Undefeated NABO middleweight champion Patrick “The Machine” Majewski, who was originally set to face Dionisio Miranda in his co-featured bout on Global Boxing Promotions’ “November Reign” on Saturday, November 5 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., will now face another Colombian knockout artist in Jose Miguel Torres after Miranda was denied entry to the United States due to visa issues.

The bout, which will support the WBC International heavyweight title match between Mariusz “The Viking” Wach (25-0, 13 KO) of North Bergen, N.J., by way of Krakow, Poland and former world heavyweight champ Oliver McCall (56-11, 37 KO), may wind up as a more dangerous proposition than the original booking.

Majewski, 17-0 (11 KO), of Atlantic City, N.J., by way of Radom, Poland has been hard at work with trainer Bill Johnson to prepare for his title defense, which will also be contested for the vacant NABF middleweight title. With a win, Majewski hopes to jump further in the middleweight rankings with the World Boxing Organization (WBO) and enter into the title picture with the International Boxing Federation (IBF).

Torres, 22-5 (19 KO), of Magangue, Colombia, has a higher knockout ratio than Majewski’s original opponent (70% for Torres, compared to Miranda’s 60%), and is already in shape, having defeated Jose Antonio Rodriguez by a unanimous decision just a month ago.

“We are very pleased that we were able to secure such a quality opponent on short notice,” said Mariusz Kolodziej, CEO of Global Boxing Promotions. “Majewski is ready for a step-up fight, and he wants to challenge the best. Fights like this will put him on the short-list of top middleweight contenders.”

“November Reign” is on course to be the Mohegan Sun’s first boxing sellout in nearly ten years, with full buses coming from around the Tri-state to usher in fans to see unbeaten heavyweight knockout artist Artur “Szpila” Szpilka (8-0, 6 KO) of Wieliczka, Poland and featherweight prospect Kamil Laszczyk (4-0, 3 KO) of North Bergen, N.J., by way of Wroclaw, Poland, plus many other local New England fighters in action.

Tickets are $40.00, $65.00 and $105.00 and can be purchased by calling CES at 401.724.2253/2254 or calling Ticketmaster at1.800.745.3000. Fans can also purchase tickets online at www.cesboxing.com, www.ticketmaster.com, at Global Boxing Gym in North Bergen, N.J. or at the Mohegan Sun Box Office.

http://www.boxingnews24.com/2011/10/patrick-majewski-vs-jose-miguel-cotto-on-november-5th/