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Irish Eyes Are Smiling
By Chris Coreschi @ Ringside
“Irish” Andy Lee fully expected to making the first defense
of the title he won by knocking out Matt Korobov in the
co-feature of the PBC card in Brooklyn tonight but Quillin’s
inability to make weight rendered the bout a non title
affair. Quillin on the other hand, who said all of the right
things about his failure at the scale, found himself not
fighting for the title for the second time in 7 months.
Quillin turned down a career high $1.4 million in September
to face Korobov in a mandatory defense of the WBO belt on
the advice of advisor Al Haymon after Roc Nation won the
purse bid for the fight. Instead “Kid Chocolate” took
$500,000 and forfeited $125K of that along with any chance
at the title when he couldn’t shed the extra weight.
As for the fight itself, it appeared as though it would be
an easy night for Quillin when he dropped Lee toward the end
of round 1. A looping right hand surprised Lee as he moved
in and caught him square sending him to the canvas. Lee got
up and seemed unsteady on his feet as Quillin, in what was a
harbinger of things to come, cautiously moved in and got the
better of a late exchange even staggering Lee with a clean
left just after the bell. Round two saw Quillin sit back and
not press the shaken Lee at all, though he won the round it
was a questionable tactic. Lee saw the canvas again in the
third round when Quillin stepped on his foot while throwing
a punch, while it could have been ruled a slip referee Steve
Willis called it a knockdown. In what turned out to be the
difference in the outcome of the fight Judge Glenn Feldman
scored the round 10-9 (as did pound4pound) leading to his
113-113 score at the end.
Round 4 saw Quillin again not take any real control after a
knockdown allowing Lee to win his first round of the fight.
Rounds five and six saw Quillin get a little more active and
do enough to win both rounds opening a sizable lead on all
cards, I had Quillin ahead 59-54 after six rounds
Round seven is where the fight turned around for Lee as he
dropped Quillin for the first time in his career, unlike
Quillin however Lee came right after his opponent after the
eight count but was unable to finish him off before the
round ended. Lee continued to press the action in rounds 8
and 9, initiating the action and pressing forward and
winning both rounds. At this point Lee had closed the gap to
85-84 on my scorecard
Rounds 10 through 12 were pretty even with Quillin winning
round 10 on my card and Lee taking rounds 11 and 12. In the
last two rounds Lee looked to me like the fighter who wanted
it more, engaging Quillin and continuing to come forward.
Lee fought the twelfth like a fighter who thought he was
behind and stood toe to toe with Quillin, exchanging punches
until the final bell.
After twelve rounds of exciting action Judge Glenn Feldman
saw it 113-113, Judge Guido Cavalleri had it 113-112 for Lee
and Judge Eric Marlinski scored it 113-112 for Quillin
resulting in a split draw.
Pound4pound scored the bout 113-113. As with the main event
a rematch would be most welcome.
Twitter: @zeeek775
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