by David P. Greisman

Peter Quillin doesn’t want to leave middleweight just yet, even though he failed to make 160 against Andy Lee earlier this year and even though his upcoming bout with Michael Zerafa has a contractual weight limit of 163 pounds. He has a potential fight with fellow Brooklyn middleweight Daniel Jacobs tentatively scheduled for this December, after all.

But Quillin acknowledges that a move up to super middleweight is in the not-too-distant future.

“I’m getting to that point where I feel like that’s going to be on the horizon,” Quillin said on an Aug. 27 media conference call held to promote his Sept. 12 fight with Zerafa. “I’m getting older. I’ve been the same weight since I was 18 years old. Now I’m 32. So it’s like I won’t be to the point where I’m trying to hang onto weight to try to make things happen that I don’t think will be happening. So I’m thinking in my near future I will be up to 168 pounds.”

Quillin came in overweight for his April bout with Andy Lee, initially coming in at 161.4 pounds, then returning to the scales at 160.6 pounds.

“This is the first time in my career where I had to go through this type of stuff,” Quillin said. “As far as me working in the gym, I’m in the gym. For the Danny Jacobs fight, whatever the case may be, I’m going to try my hardest to try to make that weight, but I won’t kill myself. Like I said, I’m 32 now and I’m only getting older. The weight is not coming off the same as it did as the young man I once was before.”

When Quillin stepped onto the scales to face Lee, it had been nearly a year since his previous outing, an April 2014 victory over Lukas Konecny. It’s possible that inactivity, combined with his body growing out of the weight, contributed to him missing 160.

“I came close to making the weight,” Quillin said. “It was just the extra couple little pounds, it didn’t come off like it had done in my past. I never got into a sauna [before]. I had to get into a sauna.”

If Quillin makes 163 comfortably for Zerafa, there may not be as much difficulty dropping back down to 160 for Jacobs (or somewhere near, should they agree to fight at a number slightly above). Quillin would have only three months or less between the Zerafa fight and the likely date for the Jacobs bout, and would be back in the gym rather quickly.

Quillin-Zerafa is the main event of an afternoon “Premier Boxing Champions” card on NBC on the same day as the Floyd Mayweather-Andre Berto pay-per-view later that night.

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com