miguel-cotto-peter-quillin

By Rick Reeno –

BoxingScene.com reported earlier that Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer had a meeting with former three division world champion Miguel Cotto (38-4, 21KOs) on Tuesday afternoon at the Golden Offices in Los Angeles. During the meeting, Schaefer offered Cotto more than $10 million dollars to face former champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-1-1, 30KOs) in the headline bout of a March 8th Showtime Pay-Per-View event.

Another option for Cotto, although far less lucrative, would be a middleweight fight with WBC champion Sergio Martinez. But there are questions marks on when Martinez would be injury-free, and whether the World Boxing Council will sanction the fight when a mandatory is due to Marco Antonio Rubio.

For Cotto, the main selling point in facing Martinez is the scenario of becoming the first Puerto Rican boxer to win four world titles in four weight divisions.

If Cotto’s heart is set on capturing a fourth divisional title, Schaefer says there is also the option of facing undefeated WBO champion Peter Quillin (30-0, 22KOs). The Golden CEO is confident he can put together a package that would give Cotto a better monetary deal than the boxer would receive in facing Martinez.

“If Miguel wants to fight for a middleweight title, and he wants to fight in New York, he can go and fight Peter Quillin……no problem. And by the way, he won’t have to go and split 50-50 with Sergio Martinez. That’s another possibility,” Schaefer told BoxingScene.com.

http://www.boxingscene.com/schaefer-cotto-also-option-facing-quillin–71394

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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

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Article Link – http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&opt=printable&id=70931#ixzz2ikxfHfi3
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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      

A dream fight between Manny Pacquiao (53-3-2, 38KOs) and Sergio Martinez (48-2-2, 27KOs) is possible – if Martinez agrees to a same-day weigh-in, according to Top Rank’s CEO Bob Arum, who promotes the Filipino superstar. Martinez is willing to drop down to a catch-weight of 150-pounds to face Pacquiao, the WBO’s champion at 147-pounds.

Arum’s concern with Martinez making 150, with 24 hours to rehydrate, is the possibility of the Argentine boxer coming to the ring at 175-pounds on the night of the fight. To prevent that, Arum would like to have both boxers make weight on a Saturday afternoon, a few hours before the fight.

“Here is the problem with Martinez. Let me tell you the problem with Martinez. Martinez says ‘I’ll fight him at 150,’ but that’s bullsh**. That means he’ll dehydrate until the afternoon of the weigh-in and come to the ring at 175, which he’s done before. What I say is, if you really want to fight Manny Pacquiao – I have a simple way to do it. You said 150, you will fight at 150, then let’s go to a commission, and not necessarily this [Las Vegas] commission….maybe New York, maybe Texas, wherever. And say ‘both fighters want to do the fight and they want to go back to the old days and we’ll weigh in on the day of the fight, at 150. If he wants to do that, we can start talking,” Arum said.

After last year’s fight with Antonio Margarito, at 150, Arum says Pacquiao and his team made a decision to avoid taking fights above the welterweight limit. Pacquiao, who tried to bulk up for Margarito, started dropping weight a few days before the fight because the added bulk was making him sluggish in the gym. Pacquiao weighed in at 144-pounds. During the fight, Margarito’s size became a factor when he trapped Pacquiao against the ropes and hurt him badly to the body.

“He was hurting for a month after that fight. We realized that he can’t continue to fight all of these bigger guys,” Arum said.

 

http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&opt=printable&id=45795

Promoter Lou DiBella recently told that Ring Magazine middleweight champion Sergio Martinez will come to Moscow to fight with World Boxing Organization (WBO) middleweight titleholder Dmitry Pirog only for $5-6 millions. DiBella believes that Pirog doesn’t have a big name and this fight isn’t marketable.

«I think that all this DiBella’s statements are refusal to fight, — said Pirog’s promoter Kirill Pchelnikov. — They don’t want to fight with Pirog at least for now. And money is not the issue. You may give them six millions and they will find another excuses. Instead of fighting Pirog he would better fight with two other fighters he knows he can beat and make the same money. Dibella says that Dmitry is unknown fighter. I wonder with whom Martinez will fight next and how well this boxer will be known. We are ready to fight anyone and even if Martinez will accept the fight we are ready to fight anytime and anywhere. But we have other options for Pirog, not only Martinez. I can’t tell you who will be the next opponent. It will be clear later. The only thing I can tell is that we had negotiations with WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm, but he refused from bout with Pirog and now he has the fight with British fighter Martin Murray».

http://www.boxingnews24.com/2011/10/pirog-ready-to-fight-sergio-martinez-any-time-any-place/