In defeat, boxer Peter Quillin turned to a higher power for answers

Peter Quillin was a middleweight champion, but a shocking loss to Danny Jacobs interrupted his plans. He took time for himself and found answers from a  higher power.

Peter Quillin (34-1-1, 23 KOs) fights veteran Alfredo Angulo (25-7, 21 KOs) on Saturday, Sept. 21 in a super middleweight bout on PBC on FS1 that can put him back into title contention. Quillin knows what it’s like to be a champion, but his plans changed in 2015 when he was stopped by Daniel Jacobs in round 1. A lot transpired after that night for Quillin, but ultimately, for the better in his eyes.

Quillin was the WBO middleweight champion from 2012-2014 until he vacated his title. In 2015 he met Jacobs for a shot at the WBA belt. The bout was stopped less than halfway into the first round as the referee deemed Quillin unable to defend himself. It was an unexpected outcome to most, but Quillin had a premonition before the fight that it wouldn’t be his night.

Quillin puts a lot of stock into dreams and their meanings. It was a dream that led to his proposal and eventual marriage to his wife, Allison. Before his bout with Jacobs, he had a dream he would lose.

“I had another dream that I was gonna lose to Danny [Jacobs],” Quillin described to FanSided. “It seemed like a lot of traumatic moments and things that happened in my life come with dreams. I was basically fighting against that dream, and it came true. People can say fear or whatever can come true. Yeah, I believe that, but I wasn’t scared to fight him. I was basically got a dream, and I was scared of the dream. I never wanted to be in a shameful moment in my life.”

After his loss to Jacobs, Quillin’s life was altered in numerous ways. The negative impacts of the loss were how people that were supposed to be close to Quillin reacted.

“I took a loss, but we take losses in life all the time,” Quillin recalled. “Through that, my worst fears was to lose people I thought were supporters. Right after that fight, I did lose a lot of people that I thought were supporters. People that made it to every fight.”

The most important person that remained in Quillin’s corner was his wife, Allison. Her love helped him have a revelation.

“I really got to see who my friends were, and I’m glad to be able to say that my wife stood by me through everything,” said Quillin.

“I learned in the moment that it’s a life lesson—a worldly loss can be a spiritual victory. A worldly loss can be a spiritual victory. I felt that my victory was already sealed with the Lord God. I basically understood that my voices that I was listening to, I was listening to the wrong voices. I should have been listening to God all along.”

After losing to Jacobs, Quillin didn’t fight again for almost two years. He didn’t question his abilities as a boxer, but he sought answers pertaining to his spirit and soul. The loss and fallout from it resonated with him on a personal level and made him examine his outlook on life. Quillin re-evaluated his priorities and found solace in Christianity.

“Everybody says they know God,” declared Quillin. “When a person says that the God that they believe in is happy with the way that they live. These questions I had for myself. I went out there, and I was just on a big journey to find those answers and how true they are to me. Was the God that I have, the God that I believe in happy with the way I was living?”

Quillin figured the answer to that question was no. He felt that he should hold himself to a higher standard as a person. He has a wife and kids, and he thought they deserved the best father possible.

“I started to go to spiritual retreats and just started to dig deep into the Bible,” said Quillin. “And I started to associate myself with people that helped bring understanding to me and about the things that I was reading, and I would believe in that.”

Quillin saw boxing as a bit of a conundrum. The lifestyle and business dealings associated with the sport took him to places that he didn’t want to go. Quillin vowed that he wasn’t going to allow the life surrounding a boxer to taint his morality or his inner being.

“Once you get to the point where you’re dragged off doing things that’s very tempting, then it’s not of God,” said Quillin. “I just had to correct my inner circle and who I got my council from. There’s a time and a place for everything. There’s a time to be born. There’s a time to die. It’s also time to go to war, and also a time to heal.”

Quillin has healed emotionally and spiritually and feels like he is at a good place in life. His family is happy and healthy, and his faith offers him clarity.  When he steps into the ring with Angulo on Sept. 21, there will be no fear in his heart.

“You said, what’s the most fear that I have?” asked Quillin. “The fear for the Lord is the first part of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the only fear that I have. I have no fear. I have no anxiety. I don’t have no worries.

“Every day I try to walk with God, and I tell myself if God is walking with you who could possibly walk against you? Nobody.”