by James Slater: Last night, at The Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, two unbeaten and exciting prospects kept their unbeaten records intact with commanding unanimous decision points wins. “Kid Chocolate” Peter Quillin gave former world title challenger Antwun Echols a painful beating over ten rounds at super-middleweight, while heavyweight up-and-comer Chazz Witherspoon won a clear ten rounder against the durable Domonic Jenkins. Quillin won by scores of 99-91, 98-91 and 98-92. Witherspoon’s win was awarded by margins of 98-92,97-93 and 96-93..
Big things really are expected of both fighters, the fast and powerful Quillin in particular. Aged just 24, “Kid Chocolate” seemingly has all the ingredients needed to become a world champion. Trained by the knowledgeable Colin Morgan, Quillin is being move quite well, with last night’s win being his twelfth over an opponent with a winning record. Flashy, a good talker, always in magnificently physical condition and fiercely determined, the 24 year old from Chicago is definitely one to watch. He got his nickname, incidentally, due to his facial likeness to the legendary Cuban fighter from yesteryear.
Witherspoon, too, has a right future. Being moved perhaps more cautiously than Quillin, the 26 year old heavyweight known as “Gentleman” has now boxed eleven (out of 23) guys with winning records. Hopefully this year Witherspoon, related, of course to “Terrible” Tim, will be moved up in quality. So far, however, there are no real names to speak of on his record. Still, at age 26 only, Witherspoon has plenty of time on his side.
It is a competitive time to be a boxing prospect right now, with superb talents like Yuriorkis Gamboa, “The New” Ray Robinson, Amir Khan, Quillin himself and others competing to be the next best thing in the sport. The fans are the real winners as a result, and it is always interesting to see which of the upcoming talent makes it to the top. For what it’s worth, I would put some serious money on Peter Quillin getting there; slightly less on the more plodding Witherspoon. Both guys are heading in the right direction, though, and it is good they both won last night.
In doing so, Quillin rose to 18-0(14) and Witherspoon improved his record to 23-0(15). As for last night’s losers, Echols, who really ought to think about retiring, fell to 31-8-4(27) and Jenkins fell to 13-8-1(6).