Former WBO World middleweight champion Peter Quillin (34-1-1, 23 KOs) takes on Alfredo Angulo (25-7, 21 KOs) in California this Saturday.
‘Kid Chocolate’ continues his journey in the super middleweight division, and will be hoping to notch up his third win since suffering his first career defeat to Danny Jacobs back in 2015. Quillin – who was out of action for more than two years following the Jacobs bout – discussed his maiden loss and return to action.
“I was just subscribing to something that I can believe in, that I was hurting myself. As people don’t have all the assets of life, let alone about boxing, nobody trains to lose but losing is part of what happens in boxing for some.
“I just learned how to conquer fear – it’s something that preys in the back of your mind and I guess I don’t have that perception of fear anymore in my heart.” Quillin told Boxing Social in an exclusive interview.
The 36-year-old was due to meet Caleb Truax in a World title final eliminator on August 31st until the former IBF World champion had to pull out due to a torn achilles. Quillin’s mission, however, remains the same – heading back into the ring this weekend with a renewed vision since his return in 2017.
“I go up in there to be able to secure victory in the way that I work. I work diligently at that, but things can happen in fighting.
“I think the best thing for me to do at this part of my career is to give it back to the will of God, and let God do what he needs to do and me – not take all of the credit or look to be served, or look to the people that congratulate me, I just look to be a suffering servant.
“People that struggle, that are going through something, people battling through depression, the story goes on and on and on.
“I have to lead a good example of how to fight depression, how to fight suicide, how to fight a dent in a relationship, how to be married, how to be one of the first persons in your family to get married, have a wife and have all your kids with the same woman and how to love her.
“Those are the real fights of life, so me going in there to fight – you actually get to see me fight in a physical fight with all these detrimental fights that I fight through every day.”
Being a former World champion in the middleweight division, Quillin discovered what it meant to be champion in the sense of the lessons it taught him. When asked about his pursuit of becoming a two-weight World champion, he replied:
“I guess I lost the sense of that once I became a World champion and I got to see things happening for myself. When it came to the championship, I have been a champion in fights, I’ve defended my belt four times before something came along where I had to vacate that belt.
“I just learned that those important things that happened weren’t really that important. As time went by, I see what was more better to have that belt for is like your influence and how you’re helping other people who are going through stuff.
“I can’t even explain it, that’s why you start to see me not use animal status so much, but using more of a suffering servant type of vibe because that’s what I’m doing – suffering through training to become a servant for others.”
Quillin’s journey to become a two-weight World champion is different to your usual fame, money and success. He hopes with a win this Saturday, that he can continue to inspire others and becoming a World champion once again is the mail service.
“That’s the mission right there, I just make sure that every time I speak and every time I get the opportunity to get the mic or have the platform to be able to speak a message, I will just tell you that God loves you and He’s got a plan for you.
“When you’re praying with that type of message, I learned that it’s not even about you, it’s about others. That’s what I’m looking to do in this chapter in my career, is making it about others and less about myself.” He concluded.
Quillin’s personal note:
“I want to thank the UK fans, all the people out there that support me for all of their reasons. I know I put something on my Instagram about Dillian Whyte and whether if he’s guilty or not guilty, I’m not here to look at nobody’s hurt and say that we should always think about being clean in boxing because there’s a lot of fighters that are losing their lives.
“They’ll be on your timeline for a little bit and then we forget about it. I think we forgot about Prichard Colon and what he suffered with, we forgot about the two boxers that just passed away and I think we lose track of what cheating can do to somebody’s life.
“It can deliberately tear a family apart, I think I just want to make sure that when I’m speaking, I’m not speaking from being hypocritical or trying to judge anybody but more so, just shedding light that we should all think about how to uplift the sport of boxing. So we can have this around for some time and give other kids, that come from where I come from an opportunity to fight on a World class stage and be able to put their story out there.
“That goes to anybody, in the UK, Australia, wherever you’re at and you’re fighting with a story I’m trying to make sure that any time I speak I’m just trying to make sure that we’re protected. I don’t think the fans truly understand that, but I do it for the ones that want to see a good fight and want to see somebody go home to their family and just enjoy the story.
“I apologise to Dillian Whyte and he’s not guilty or if he is guilty, I just want him to know that no matter what, God loves him as well just like me. God has a plan for him, I hope that through his future that he can come to know Christ and he can fight for the better cause of helping those who suffer.
“Thank you for all of the fans catching this interview, I hope you were inspired, not inspired to be a rich man because what sense does it do for a man to gain the whole World waiting for a pretty soul, but more so, for you to be able to count on yourself and defeat the odds against you.”
Article by: Chandler Waller
Follow Chandler on Twitter at: @ChandlerWaller