By Ryan Maquiñana
The war of words continues between middleweight titlist Peter Quillin and Abel Sanchez, the trainer of his counterpart Gennady Golovkin.
Quillin (29-0, 21 KOs) has taken exception to Sanchez’s statement that “he doesn’t seem to have a backbone” to make his own decisions, specifically calling out Quillin’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, and his adviser Al Haymon.
Sanchez also lauded his fighter for headlining in main events on HBO, while Quillin has appeared on Showtime undercards in his last two title bouts.
“Look, I trust my team. Al was responsible for getting Floyd Mayweather the biggest deal in boxing history,” Quillin said. “We’re all shooting for that. Yeah, Gennady Golovkin is in a good situation right now at HBO, but that’s because Floyd moved to Showtime, and Showtime’s been putting on the better fights.”
Quillin is expected to return on October 26 in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center against an opponent yet to be determined, with former titleholder Sergio Mora (24-3-2, 7 KOs) among the candidates.
Originally, Quillin’s handlers had hoped to ink Martin Murray (25-1-1, 11 KOs) for the matchup, but visa issues torpedoed the fight. Now Murray, ironically enough, appears slated to fight the Nov. 2 winner between Golovkin (27-0, 24 KOs) and Curtis Stevens (25-3, 18 KOs) as the mandatory challenger-in-waiting.
“They’re talking about the [Golovkin-Stevens] winner fighting Martin Murray, but somehow they forget that I was the one originally trying to fight him,” Quillin said. “I already offered to fight him. I even agreed to travel to the U.K. if that was how it needed to be.
“I’m the hot middleweight right now,” Quillin added. “Gennady Golovkin really wants what I have. No matter what people say about Gennady Golovkin, he won’t be able to connect with the fans the way I do. But right now, he has a dangerous fight with someone who desperately wants to be a champion, and that’s Curtis Stevens of Brooklyn.”
Quillin then tried to decipher why Sanchez has targeted him recently.
“I don’t know why Gennady Golovkin needs his corner to talk for him, but I’m far from a sucker,” Quillin said. “There’s really not no reason to be doing all this talking back and forth. This fight will eventually be made one day, and it’s going to be huge. Put the money on the table, and we can make this happen.”
Ryan Maquiñana was the boxing producer for NBCOlympics.com during London 2012 and writes a weekly column for CSNBayArea.com. He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the Ratings Panel for Ring Magazine. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com, check out his blog at Norcalboxing.net, or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.
