It only took Daniel “Miracle Man” Jacobs 85 seconds, a little less than a half a round to change Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin’s undefeated record of 32-0-1 to 32-1-1 Saturday night at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. It took Jacobs and Quillin, both Brooklyn natives who’ve been friends since their younger days in the Golden Gloves, longer than that to get from the dressing room to the ring.
Referee Harvey Dock stopped the WBO, 160-pound middleweight championship bout after Quillin was rocked by a strong right hand, and then a barrage of Jacob blows that left him dazed. From ringside you could see that Quillin, who entered the ring as the WBO middleweight champion, had nothing left. There was an emptiness, a vulnerability in his eyes that said, “It’s OK, Ref, if you stop this fight.”
His nonverbal communication was complicit in the referee’s decision. He was less enthusiastic about continuing than he was about initially defending his crown when he first entered the ring. With his hands by his side, his eyes signed off on Dock’s decision.
“I caught him with a big shot,” said Jacobs, although Quillin was the aggressor. “Once I knew I had him hurt, I kept going.”
“This is what happens in the game of boxing,” said Quillin, who may have failed the NFL’s concussion protocol policy. “Sometimes you come up short.”
Dock’s 85-second stoppage of the fight caused an outcry from Quillin’s corner and from the 8000-plus fans who would have liked to have seen the fight decided by a knockout, Quillin at least knocked down or the possibility of him recovering and continuing. There’s “no standing 8 count” in title fights.
“I was able to catch him with the right,” said the champ, who connected on 27 of 53 punches thrown versus Quillin’s only 2 of 16. “I saw his eyes, and it looked like his equilibrium was off. Once I had him hurt, I was thinking to myself, ‘Oh my God, Ref! Stop the fight.’”
When asked about a rematch, Jacobs, who along with Quillin received $1.5 million said, “I definitely would give him a rematch. I want to fight the best out there, but I’m willing to fight him next if that’s what the fans want.”
