(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) Showtime’s debut of the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, N.Y. was a big hit. Fans were so hyped they even gave Mike Tyson a standing ovation. That came about during the fight between Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin 28-0 (KO 21) and Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam 27-1 (KO 17). Thankfully fans had been pulled out of their stupor induced by the Devon Alexander vs Randall Bailey fight. The biggest excitement in that fight came when Referee Arthur Mercante, Jr. took a penalty point from each man for excessive holding. It was definitely a yawner. If you ever hear Bailey say he’s committed to starting earlier and doing more, don’t believe him. Even Alexander the Great, holder of the IBF welterweight title and winner of the fight by UD, apologized for it.
Quillin and N’Dam changed all of that. N’Dam came back more times than a boomerang. He was down twice each in the fourth, sixth and twelfth rounds. His resiliency was unbelievable. Not only did he survive each knockdown, he got up and back into the fight, throwing good, hard combinations that had Peter experiencing a little instability of his own. But, Kid Chocolate proved his previous twenty kayos were no fluke. He ripped off his own impressive combinations with power in both hands. His primary weapon against N’Dam was the left hook. He landed it both as a defensive counter punch and as an offensive weapon. As a counter, he would time it perfectly, sneaking it in between N’Dam’s left and right. The opening would be there because N’Dam would start to “cock” the right, which meant it dropped low or was pulled back enough to expose his chin. As an offensive weapon, Quillin would set it up with a lead right, which would fall short, enticing N’Dam to once again “cock” his right to counter. Kid Chocolate would beat him to the punch and wham the left hook would slam in again. Five times that happened, with the sixth knockdown coming as the result of a right hand for good measure. The fight was so competitive that even with four knockdowns going into the twelfth round, there was still the possibility N’Dam might win. It took two more knockdowns to remove all doubt as to who won the fight. In other words, N’Dam fought so well, Quillin needed three 10-7 rounds to convince everyone that he was the better man. With his big win, Quillin captures the WBO middleweight title.
continue
