On another night when Premier Boxing Champions needed its main event to deliver, it didn’t. You can’t predict accidental headbutts ending the main event after two rounds, but the crowd at the Armory in Minneapolis, Minnesota on FoxSports1 didn’t get a consolation prize either.
The idea for the card was that local standout Caleb Truax (30-4-2, 19 KO) would be fighting formerly world-class middleweight Peter Quillin (34-1-1, 23 KO) for the mandatory shot at Caleb Plant’s super middleweight participation trophy. You pack a few thousand raucously drunken tundra dwellers into a building to cheer on one of their own and everything will work itself out. Except it didn’t. There are slow burns that lead into ridiculous crescendos, and there are slow burns that lead to nothing because the powder is wet and someone didn’t do their fucking job. This was the latter.
The main event was a wash, and sometimes that cannot be helped. Truax and Quillin are consummate pros, and that should’ve been a good fight. It was shaping up to be interesting. During the first round Truax worked inside and Quillin’s concentration (his Achilles’ heel) seemed to ebb and flow. A minute into the second round, a seemingly glancing headbutt cut Truax down to his skull. It was DEEP. The bout continued, but between rounds, the ringside physician ruled the bout over. I absolutely wanted to see the fight go on, but I understand why the ringside physician made that decision. It was going to be a gusher, and right above Truax’s eye. He’d have been fighting blind.
The bout that seemingly should’ve prepped the aforementioned raucously drunken tundra dwellers for the main event was some prospect no one has ever heard of against a fat guy from Houston, Texas. Swing bouts are a reality. They shouldn’t be a regularity. I don’t ever want to think of that 6 rounds of puerile ineptitude again. The novice bouts are usually scheduled at 5 pm for a reason.
Middleweight Sergiy Derevyanchenko (13-1, 10 KO) opened the televised card, winning a unanimous decision over Jack Culcay (25-4, 13 KO). I hadn’t heard of him either. The bout had occasional moments of interest but was largely devoid of drama.
The time for grading PBC on a curve ended a while back. It was a bad card. I love when the headliner is local. The Armory was packed to see Caleb Truax fight. The crowd and the television time were wasted with a patchwork card that had no semblance of flow or entertainment.
There’s a phrase for people who apologize for every mistake but promise that if you trust them, it’s going to pay off long term: They’re called bullshit artists.
(Photo by Andrew Dobin)
