by David P. Greisman
The fight between former middleweight titleholder Peter Quillin and Michael Zerafa that headlines the Sept. 12 afternoon “Premier Boxing Champions” card on NBC will have a weight limit of 163 pounds, according to the fighters and promoter Lou DiBella.
The fact that the fight will be contested above the middleweight limit isn’t wholly surprising. 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 bout with Zerafa is a non-title fight, and it’ll allow Quillin to see how his body feels making 163. It will also allow him to remain closer to the middleweight limit should he come out triumphant and head pretty quickly back into training camp for an anticipated fight with Danny Jacobs. That bout is tentatively scheduled for early December at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where both Jacobs and Quillin are from.
There would be three months or less between Quillin-Zerafa and Jacobs-Quillin. When Quillin came in overweight for the Lee fight, it had been about a year since his previous appearance in the ring.
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