The middleweight title picture warms up in mid-autumn with a pair of fights. First Peter Quillin defends his WBO belt against Gabriel Rosado on October 26, on the undercard of the Bernard Hopkins vs. Karo Murat clash, a Showtime event broadcast from Atlantic City. The next weekend, super-puncher and IBF champ Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin dukes it out with Curtis Stevens.
Boxing circles crackle with speculation that should these two boxers get past their opponents, the next step is a showdown and partial-unification fight. There are some promotional challenges to overcome there, as Quillin is a Golden Boy fighter, now linked with Showtime, and Golovkin has an exclusive contract with HBO. However, the parties concerned sound optimistic a deal is there to be made. So the natural question is “will Golovkin and Quillin win their mid-autumn fights?”
Also see: Is Gennady Golovkin the sport’s hardest puncher?
Quillin vs. Rosado Preview
Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin is a gifted boxer-puncher with excellent ring generalship, giving him the ability to adjust to just about whatever an opponent brings into the ring with him. Watching Quillin is something like watching Andre Ward, although without quite the same level of polish. In particular, he is a counter-punching machine in the ring, making opponents pay worse than an IRS adjuster. That said, his power dings rather than cracks: in his last two fights, he ground his opponents down with several knockdowns.
Rosado, by contrast, is a fringe contender, who rode a hot streak to begin landing some big fights. While he’s a little taller than Quillin, he is really a 154-pounder. He looks great against the journeymen, but was predictably awful against Gennady Golovkin, and that’s keeping in mind Golovkin reportedly got out of his sick bed to clobber Rosado. It’s easy to see this fight becoming the third consecutive one that Quillin wins by either stoppage or lopsided decision, with plenty of knockdowns along the way.
Golovkin vs. Stevens Preview
Triple G needs no introduction: he’s the division’s most feared banger. He brutalized the aforementioned Rosado, and his last two fights — against solid contender Matthew Macklin and former light middleweight champ Nobuhiro Ishida — both ended in a KO3.
Curtis Stevens, on the other hand, is a pretty ordinary fighter who, similarly to Rosado, rode a hot streak of wins to put himself into title contention. The only question here though is not whether Stevens will end the fight on his back, but how long it will take to get there? One round? Two? Three?
Golovkin vs. Quillin?
So both guys should come through their title defenses. Assuming a deal can be reached for the fight to take place on HBO, what can we expect?
The big unanswered question for both fighters is how they might take a punch from a world class opponent. Neither has really been tested in that regard. This matters for Quillin because, despite Kid Chocolate’s defensive prowess, Golovkin packs thunder. If Quillin doesn’t have that hard candy shell, he’ll melt under Triple G’s fire. For his part, Golovkin is going to get hit by Quillin’s skillful counter-punches. That is just the way it would go down. If those counters hurt, at a minimum Golovkin’s offense will falter.
So who do I think catches best and comes out on top? Ordinarily I’d go with the adaptable counter-puncher, but rumors have it that Golovkin has already roughed up Quillin in sparring, and given that neither guy is likely to have his chin tested soundly before they meet (if they do meet next year), that decides it. If I had to pick, I’d pick Golovkin.
