By Bill "Two Scoops" Emes
New York boxing fans have been asking for a hometown collision between two of the top boxers at 160-pounds, WBO champion Peter Quillin (31-0, 22KOs) and highly ranked contender Daniel Jacobs (27-1, 24KOs).
Jacobs has been asking for the fight and Quillin has told him to work his way up in order to earn that shot. Both boxers are managed by Al Haymon and fight under the Golden Boy Promotions banner.
On August 9th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Jacobs will face Jarrod Fletcher of Australia for the vacant WBA "regular" middleweight title. The main WBA champion is Gennady Golovkin.
If he defeats Fletcher, Jacobs believes the negotiations for a fight with Quillin will flow a lot smoother - although Quillin was recently ordered by the WBO to face mandatory challenger Matt Korobov.
"That fight [with Quillin] can be made. I think it's all on him now. But I think once I become champion, it kind of levels a lot of the situation where he claims that wasn't even. He said I had to work my way up, which is rightfully so. A champion wants to fight someone who's worth it. If you are going to fight someone as talented as myself, you want to make sure that you are properly compensated - which as a champion I understand, I get it, it's a business. I get it that if you're going to lose, you want to get as much money as possible. But at the same time, if I'm a champion as well, there will be a lot more fair ground and the fight will be a lot easier to make," Jacobs told BoxingScene.com.
Quillin had also asked Jacobs to face close friend Curtis Stevens in a box-off, where the winner would get a crack at the WBO title. Jacobs and Stevens also share the same trainer in Andre Rozier.
"That fight is not going to happen and [Quillin] knows that we are kind of like family. I've know Curtis since day one. We are training together right now. [Me and Quillin is] the fight that needs to be made. The fans want that and he knows they want that."
