PETER QUILLIN W10 ANTWUN ECHOLS

Unbeaten middleweight Peter Quillin passed his first real test and showed promise, I thought, in a widely scored but hard-earned win over durable veteran Antwun Echols on Wednesday Night Fights.

Questions were answered. We now know that Quillin can take it as well as give it. He kept his composure when under pressure. His stamina was good — Quillin’s two strongest rounds were the ninth and 10th, when he was battering Echols around the ring.

The fight was worth seeing after the drawn-out Yankees-Boston baseball game that delayed the boxing broadcast until two hours and 20 minutes after the scheduled 10 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Pacific start time. Some fans might well have given up and changed channels or gone to bed. I was about to give up, too, until, purely by chance, I saw the message at the bottom of the screen advising viewers that Wednesday Night Fights would follow the game and the Baseball Tonight show. As the fights came on at 12.20 a.m. ET it is safe to assume they had been pre-recorded. I guess the lesson here for fans is that when other sports events push back the starting time of ESPN boxing shows, hang in there, frustrating though it may be.

Back to Quillin, and he is a willing type of fighter with good hand speed but perhaps not quite the puncher he was made out to be. As I mentioned in the fight preview, I had seen him extended in a six-rounder by tough Jesse Orta. Quillin dropped Orta with a left hook in the second round but couldn’t put a dent in him after that. I know there were some who saw Echols as ready to get blown out, but I always saw this as a long fight. When Echols wobbled around the ring in the ninth round I thought that Quillin was going to make a genius out of me with a nine-round win, but Echols has fought at a very high level, has been in tough spots many times and knows how to fight through them. The 10th-round was a rocky one for the veteran, too, but as the middle of the round passed I was glad to see him at least have the satisfaction of going the distance.

Quillin is exciting to watch but I consider him a prospect at this stage. This was a good learning fight for him, I think he discovered some things about himself and I would lthink that the experience will make him a better fighter.