Here's why Giovanni Lorenzo will get Andy Lee

Peter Quillin is a fine young fighter. But Giovanni Lorenzo is also an excellent fighter and he deserves a shot at an HBO fight more than Quillin does. Though Quillin is undefeated, he’s also relatively untested. Giovanni has taken the tough fights (four major bouts in his opponent’s backyards, three outside the country) while they were all in there prime and shown that he is a world-class fighter. Matthew Macklin is a great example of a fighter who took tough fights and lost but got rewarded for his good effort. When Lorenzo fought Felix Sturm in Sturms hometown Cologne for the WBA. Giovanni threw more punches than Sturm, landed about the same total amount and had a huge edge in power punches yet not one judge gave him the fight. When he lost a split decision to Sebastian Sylvester for the IBF crown in Sylvester’s hometown in Germany (one American judge had it for us, two European judges for Sylvester) or when he fought interim WBA Champ Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam in Le Cannet, France N'Dam's home town and knocked him through the ropes and out of the ring, only to have N’Jikam get aided in getting up by a photographer and a WBA judge (that’s generally an automatic DQ – but not in France apparently, see YouTube link to round five below). It is clear Lorenzo won by KO. "N'Dam Lorenzo round 5" I think the only true way to compare Giovanni and Peter Quillin (since Quillin is relatively untested) is by looking at how they did against their two common opponents – Dionisio Miranda and Dennis Sharpe. Giovanni blazed Miranda out in two rounds with one wicked right hand. Quillin struggled to a ten round close decision win over Miranda and was almost knocked out in the seventh round. Both men stopped Sharpe, though Giovanni did it in one round when Sharpe was still an undefeated prospect, while Quillin took four rounds and Sharpe had lost five in a row at that point. Bottom line, Giovanni is the more battle-tested fighter and a much tougher test for Andy Lee than Peter Quillin would be. Let’s have Quillin travel to Australia to fight Daniel Geale, or to Russia to fight Dmitriy Pirog or Germany and fight Golvoken and see how he does before he gets a big fight on HBO. Giovanni’s earned his chance.