By Mike Coppinger
Golden Boy middleweight prospect Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin was preparing for the toughest test of his career this Saturday on the undercard of Amir Khan-Zab-Judah, versus slick southpaw Tarvis Simms. Unfortunately, Simms was forced to pull out just last week with a rib injury, leaving Quillin’s team scrambling for a replacement. In steps Jason LeHoullier, loser of five straight.
A big step down in opposition, Quillin refuses to take his opponent lightly, weary of the challenges a late-replacement poses.
“It’s more of a dangerous test to be preparing for one guy, and then switch your opponent last-minute, a week and a half before the fight and get a last-minute replacement,” said the 28-year-old Quillin. “I don’t know what he does, I don’t know if this guy is in the gym 24/7 waiting for his opportunity to come like other fighters I’ve seen do. That’s dangerous within itself. I’m not going to overlook anybody in the ring.”
Quillin (24-0, 18 KOs) hopes to impress, knowing that highlights of his bout will be shown on HBO, with him very much in the mix for a fight with lineal middleweight champion Sergio Martinez in the future. When that fight comes is another matter, as Martinez’s promoter Lou DiBella dismissed Quillin as an opponent earlier this week in a story on BoxingScene.com, stating that he “is a good fighter, but he's done nothing at 160-pounds to earn a shot with Sergio. Let him go to middleweight and beat a few guys like a Dmitry Pirog or Felix Sturm or Matthew Macklin, and then we could talk.” Quillin found that funny.
“Sergio’s fighting a guy named Darren Barker,” said Quillin. “C’mon man, that guy’s never fought in the United States, that’s a laughing matter to me. “
“I want to fight the best. Floyd Mayweather called out Oscar De La Hoya with 10 fights, people don’t remember that. As far as the boxing world goes, they know exactly what it is. They know exactly, on paper, that I could be a good, formidable opponent for Sergio Martinez.”
Quillin realizes though, that in order to be recognized as legitimate opponent by the fans, he’ll have to defeat a well-known contender.
“I have to get in there with a fighter that other people have seen and get up there and create a moment with those guys. The only unfortunate thing about me is it’s getting tougher to get fights. Stepping forward, I may have to get fights. I will fight anybody, that’s my mentality, I’m just being a fighter.
“I don’t think people should criticize me for calling out the champ. They should criticize me saying I didn’t want to fight the champ, or I didn’t want to fight the best. So, Freddie Roach knows what he has. I’m in the gym, he’s in the gym all the time, hard-working trainer, hard-working fighter, [Quillin’s trainer]Eric Brown is along with him, they communicate together and know exactly what I want and exactly what I’m capable of doing. Freddie is a four-time trainer of the year, how do people battle what he has to say?”
The Wild Card-based fighter questions Martinez’s motives in fighting, while he knows that he fights for the glory.
“They’re going through all these measures to basically get out that they don’t want to fight me, they want to fight [Manny] Pacquiao, who’s a guy who weighs 15, 20 pounds less than him, you know what I’m saying? Pacquiao is a superstar, so that only tells you that this guy, yeah, in all honesty, is fighting for the money and is OK with that.
“I think the money is only a part of my career that makes me good. I think winning belts, fighting the best, and the money is what makes who “Kid Chocolate” is, not just about the money. I don’t think he even cares if he wins, I think he just wants to fight him just because he wants the paycheck.”
Mike Coppinger is a regular boxing freelancer for USA TODAY and Ring Magazine. He’s a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, the Ring Ratings Advisory Panel and the Yahoo! Sports Boxing Panel. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeCoppinger.