Daniel Jacobs retained his WBA middleweight title with a stunning first-round knockout of Peter Quillin on Saturday night at the Barclays Center.
The bone cancer survivor from Brooklyn’s Brownsville section rocked Quillin with a overhand right early in the opening round, battered him against the ropes for nearly a minute then connected with a chopping right flush on the temple that sent the former champion crashing backwards amid gasps from the crowd of 8,443.
The Brooklyn transplant known as Kid Chocolate managed to stay on his feet, but his blank, cockeyed expression was not enough to satisfy referee Harvey Dock, who waved it off and wrapped his arms around the challenger at 1:25 of the first round.
It was Quillin’s first loss in 34 professional fights.
“Speed kills,” said Jacobs (31-1, 28 KOs), who has won 11 straight fights since a knockout loss to Dmitry Pirog, his lone career defeat. “There are no lucky shots in boxing. Obviously I caught him with a shot. Once I knew I had him hurt I kept going.”
Jacobs, who landed 27 of 53 punches (51%) compared to two of 16 for Quillin (12%), said he would “definitely” be open to a rematch.
“I’m willing to fight him next if that’s what the fans want,” he said.
Quillin (32-1-1, 23 KOs), who captured the WBO middleweight title in 2012 and made three defenses before vacating the belt two years later, declined to grouse about the stoppage but did say he knew where he was when Dock intervened.
“This is what happens in the game of boxing,” said Quillin, who earned $1.5m for Saturday’s stunner, same as Jacobs. “Sometimes you come up short.”
In 2011, Jacobs was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, an aggressive form of cancer that damaged his nerves and caused partial paralysis in his legs. He returned after a 19-month layoff and won the WBA’s regular version of the middleweight title with a fifth-round TKO of Australia’s Jarrod Fletcher in August 2014.
