Brinkley on the ropes

Brinkley on the ropes

Mark E. Ortega

Leave-it-in-the-ring.com

April 27, 2011

Friday night, Jesse Brinkley will be an underdog for the third straight bout as he takes on Golden Boy Promotions prospect Peter Quillin in the main event of Telefutura's Solo Boxeo. For the second time in as many years, Brinkley will be enjoying a home-field advantage against his favored opponent as he fights Quillin at the Reno Events Center in Reno, Nevada on a card co-promoted by Golden Boy and Brinkley's Reno-based promoters Terry and Tommy Lane of Let's Get It On Promotions.

The Lanes were able to match Brinkley [35-6, 22 KOs] successfully over the course of the last few years against beatable opposition en route to a IBF ranking and eventual eliminator at home on ESPN against Curtis Stevens last February where the former Contender reality star scored a wipeout unanimous decision victory against an opponent much younger than the now 34-year old Yerington, Nevada native.

Brinkley looked shaky for the first few rounds as the power punching Stevens opened up early, closing his right eye in the first with one of his wild shots. Brinkley withstood the pressure and eventually boxed and slugged his way to a victory, dropping Stevens twice. Prior to the bout, Stevens took Brinkley rather lightly as he made comments along the way to the fight that suggested Brinkley was a phony who padded his record to get up the rankings.

After proving his mettle against Stevens, Brinkley proved his heart in his title shot opportunity against IBF 168-pound champion Lucian Bute last October as he fought bravely despite being heavily outgunned, ultimately getting stopped on a body shot in the ninth round. Brinkley seized his title opportunity and never gave up and because of his brave showing he finds himself in another big fight against Quillin, who after joining forces with Freddie Roach in Southern California has upped his game to its highest point.

Quillin [23-0, 17 KOs] also has the powerful Golden Boy Promotions moving him. Quillin signed with Golden Boy late last year around the same time that they announced a partnership with Brooklyn's Barclays Center, the future home of the New Jersey Nets which is slated to open in July 2012. Quillin seemed to be the centerpiece that Golden Boy hoped to build the New York region around, yet Quillin has yet to fight near home since the two joined forces at the end of the year.

While Brinkley is no doubt the underdog, he still represents the biggest challenge that Quillin has faced in his career, and not by any marginal amount. In his last fight on Telefutura in Fairfield, California, Quillin headlined against an opponent in Dennis Sharpe that had quite a few other respected writers questioning the licensing of Quillin's opponent for a fight where he was heavily overmatched.

Quillin carried Sharpe through the first three rounds before finally opening up a bit more to stop his outclassed opponent. Against Brinkley, Quillin will have to work much harder than that.

Brinkley worked hard to restore credibility to his name after The Contender first season and subsequent losses to Joey Spina and Robin Reid rendered Brinkley as a never was to the general boxing public. Brinkley first joined up with the Lane brothers for his fight against Dallas Vargas in July of 2007, a fight that would begin an eight bout win streak that culminated in the eliminator win against Stevens and the respect of those who had already written him off.

Jesse was favored against every opponent he stepped in against during that run sans Stevens. But each opponent presented something a little different and helped build Brinkley into a regional star, something which is sorely missing from boxing that helped carry the sport the past few centuries.

His “Civil War” with Joey Gilbert was one of the most anticipated turf wars put together in the last few years, and the fight only didn't live up to the expectations because Brinkley battered Gilbert so easily, busting Gilbert's nose early in the bout which put him in retreat. Brinkley marched to a wide decision win.

A heavily overweight Brinkley was given a short training camp to ready himself for lefty Mike Paschall in a light heavyweight bout. It serves as the only bout Brinkley looked soft and rusty in as he had to come down from over 200 pounds to try and make the 175-pound limit. Things looked bad for Brinkley early, but he turned it on in the late rounds in order to secure a tight win. The Jesse Brinkley of just a few years before that would have likely fallen to the pressure and tried to find an excuse for his slip-up while this version of him gritted his teeth and toughed it out.

One wonders what will happen if things don't go well for Quillin out the gate, or if he builds a lead that Brinkley begins to put a dent in midway through the bout. He's handled quite a bit outside the ring; overcoming managerial problems and several injuries that kept him out of the ring for almost a year-and-a-half just as his career was beginning to build momentum.

At 27 years old, Quillin doesn't have too much time to try and get into the mix at the top of 160 or 168. A win over Brinkley establishes himself as a legitimate contender, bridging the gap from promising prospect in one move. Friday night, we'll see if Quillin can clench his teeth and work through what promises to be a tough fight to keep the train rolling. Jesse Brinkley promises to offer heavy resistance in front of his home crowd Friday in what could be the best matched fight the Spanish network has seen thus far in 2011. Let's hope it's as competitive in the ring as it looks to be on paper.