“Kid Chocolate” Peter Quillin worked hard to win a middleweight world title, moving up the ladder slowly but surely during his seven-year career until getting a shot at Hassan N’Dam’s belt in 2012.
Quillin dropped N’Dam six times in a decision victory and went on to make three title defenses in dominant fashion. Then Quillin’s mandatory defense against unbeaten contender Matt Korobov was due. Last August, music mogul Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports announced its arrival on the boxing promotional scene by stunningly winning the purse bid for the fight — even though it did not promote either boxer — to the tune of $1,904,840.
Quillin’s share of the purse bid would have been $1,428,630, a career-high by about triple, for a fight that was being planned for early November. That kind of money undoubtedly would have come in handy in setting up a nest egg, especially considering that a week after the purse bid Quillin’s wife, Allison, gave birth to their first child, a son they named Joaquin Enriquez.
So it surprised many when Quillin declined to fight Korobov, instead passing on the big purse and vacating his 160-pound world title, which he will have a chance to regain when he challenges Andy Lee — who went on to knock out Korobov in the sixth round to win the vacant belt in December — on Saturday night (NBC, 8:30 ET) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
In the main event, unified junior welterweight champion Danny Garcia (29-0, 17 KOs), 27, of Philadelphia, faces titleholder Lamont Peterson (33-2-1, 17 KOs), 31, of Washington, D.C., in a much-anticipated bout, albeit the 12-rounder is a nontitle fight at a catchweight of 143 pounds.
One reason Quillin passed on facing Korobov was because Al Haymon, Quillin’s adviser, is an archenemy of Jay Z and his wife, music star Beyonce, whom Haymon once managed before a falling out. Haymon was not about to help Jay Z’s boxing business get off the ground. The move was heavily criticized, but Quillin said that was not at all the overriding reason for his decision.
Little did anyone know at the time, but Quillin’s uncle, Eric Munson, the man who was his father figure when his dad went to prison, was dying of pancreatic cancer. Unbeaten Peter Quillin, left, will end a one-year layoff when he faces middleweight titlist Andy Lee on Saturday. Tom Hogan/Hoganphotos/Golden Boy
Munson did not have a lot of time left and Quillin wanted to spend time with him, as well as his newborn son, rather than train for a fight. The money could wait, criticism be damned, Quillin said.
“Being a father, of course, made me more inspired and watching my uncle pass has made me more motivated than ever to accomplish everything I want,” Quillin said. “When I gave up the belt I learned that I can be a bigger man and make tough decisions like that all of the time.”
He said he does not regret for a moment the decision to forgo the fight with Korobov.
“I never have regrets in life. If you have regrets in life, then you kind of punish yourself and I never have regrets in life,” Quillin said. “I think the decision I made was vacating my belt for my family. You know, my uncle [was] passing away with cancer and being there with him and the endless hours of talking and being there with him and being there with my family and my son, you can never get that time back, and I think in that moment I became bigger than the belt.”
Quillin said the fact that he gets to come back and immediately fight for his old belt makes him even more resolute that he made the right decision — even if he won’t make nearly the kind of money he would have under the purse bid.
Munson, who was 57, died about six weeks ago and Quillin missed the funeral because he was across the country training in Southern California. It was hard for him to miss it, but he said his family convinced him he should remain in training camp.
Quillin said he was at ease because he knew he had spent quality time with his uncle before he died. He also had the chance to take young Joaquin to visit him. He made sure to snap photos of them together so he could someday show his son the pictures of him with the most important man in his life.
“It’s a really hard thing for me not to be part of [the funeral], but everything comes with some type of sacrifice in life and I knew when I’d seen him the week before I came to camp, I went to go see him with my son because I thought it was very important for my son to be able to see him and he’d seen my son,” Quillin said. “And the week after he died and passed away and I was already in camp, I told [my family] how much I would just like to come there and they were like, ‘Well, he would have wanted you to stay in camp and get ready for your fight.'”
Before Munson died, Quillin said Munson told him how proud he was of him. Those words stayed in his mind as he decided to stay in camp so he could be at his best come Saturday night.
“He was the most important person to me in my whole life and I’m inspired to be a great man like he was,” Quillin said. “I can never tell you all how I felt about losing my uncle because this is the first time I ever lost somebody so close to me that I’m really compassionate to anybody who has a family member that’s struggling with cancer. Middleweight titlist Andy Lee enters his bout with Peter Quillin fresh off back-to-back knockout victories after being down on the scorecards. Chris Farina/Top Rank
“I want to tell those people that no matter how much that person is fighting with cancer, you fight with those people until they don’t have no more to fight, and continue to do that because that’s the way to inspire each other to keep on living and do the right thing while we’re here on earth and we have a breath.”
The 31-year-old Quillin (31-0, 22 KOs) will have been out of the ring for 51 weeks when he faces Lee (34-2, 24 KOs), 30, of Ireland, but said he is not disappointed by having had such a long layoff in the prime of his career. He said it would be silly to complain about anything after watching his uncle go through what he did.
“When I’ve seen my uncle on his deathbed with cancer, I’ve seen what a fight really looked like,” Quillin said. “That was a real fight. That was a fight that he had no control over, preparing for, nothing. He laid in the bed in his own head thinking about having cancer. And I’ve seen him fight through that until he had no more left in the tank to fight with.
“So, what that taught me is no matter how long you’re taken out of the fight, the fight is all in your head, so you know it’s about you controlling the fight in your head. And I’m able to go out there and prepare for the best fight. There’s no cancer here, so I just have to just make sure that I do what’s worthwhile while I’m here on Earth and just do my best and that’s all. That’s all I’m worth.”
