By Ian S Palmer
WBO Middleweight Champion Andy Lee of Ireland will be defending his crown for the first time this Saturday, April 11 when he takes on undefeated Peter Quillin of New York at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The 12-round bout can be seen live in Canada and the US on the NBC network while BoxNation will be broadcasting it in the UK. This fight sees Quillin trying to regain the WBO title he once held, but relinquished.
Quillin will have the hometown fans behind him here, even though Lee now fights out of America. This will be Quillin’s fourth outing at the relatively new Brooklyn arena and this will be his first fight since earning a unanimous decision over Lukas Konecny of the Czech Republic last April in a title defence of the WBO crown. Quillin has been out of action for close to a year as he gave up his belt when he balked at facing mandatory challenger Matt Korobov.
The 30-year-old Lee, who once fought for the Republic of Ireland at the Olympic Games but was born in London, England, turned pro in 2006 and fought mainly Grade B opponents until stepping up in class and losing to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr by seventh-round Ko in the summer of 2012. His other loss was also a seventh-round Ko to Brian Vera back in 2008. Lee won the WBO title when he fought the previously undefeated Korobov in December and stopped him in the sixth round in a mild upset. The year-old Lee enters the ring with a record of with 34-2 with 24 Kos Lee is a southpaw who is 6-feet-2-inches tall and has 195 pro rounds under his belt.
The 31-year-old Quillin, who was born in Chicago, has a mark of with Kos to his name and stands 5-feet-11-inches tall and has gone 148 rounds as a pro since 2005. He’s a good boxer with decent power, but hasn’t really fought an elite opponent yet as of now either. The challenger’s a methodical boxer who can at times be exciting, but Lee has a more fan-friendly style since he’s a hit and be-hit type of fighter who can be enticed into a brawl if the situation arises.
Quillin will likely be the more conservative of the two for the first few rounds especially if he has some ring rust to shake off. He has more natural boxing skills than Lee, but Lee has a never-say-die attitude that is second to none in most of his contests. The champion has the heart and desire to succeed and he’d be an elite fighter if he had the skills and chin to go with those attributes. However, Quillin needs to realize he’s not the champion here, he’s the challenger and he can’t afford to sit back and allow Lee to dictate the pace of the fight.
Prediction
Lee has been stopped twice, but he can still take quite a bit of punishment. Quillin isn’t regarded as a power puncher, but he does hit quite hard. Lee’s best bet is to get off to a quick start while Quillin is adjusting himself after a year-long layoff. If Lee can get a lead on the scorecards Quillin will have to stop him and that could be a hard task. I’ll go with Quillin here by a decision or possibly late stoppage simply because he’s the more skilled boxer.
