By Jake Donovan

Caleb Truax and Peter Quillin are ready to run it back.

The pair of former titlists and current super middleweights will once again collide—hopefully this time with their fists and not their heads—in a title eliminator, with their rematch taking place August 31 in a primetime edition of Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on Fox. The pairing was confirmed during Wednesday’s episode of FS1’s Inside PBC Boxing although the venue has yet to be announced although Brooklyn’s Barclays Center is a possibility.

Headlining the show, former 154-pound titlist Erislandy Lara (25-3-3, 14KOs) will face Ramon Alvarez (28-7-3, 16KOs). The bout will be Lara’s second first an Alvarez family member, having dropped a July 2014 majority decision to Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, who was months removed from his super welterweight title reign and still a year away from becoming middleweight champion.

While it is in Lara’s contract to always serve as the main event whenever he fights, the real attraction is part two between Truax and Quillin—especially since they never really had a chance to get going in their cut-shortened FS1 headliner this past April.

Truax (30-4-2, 19KOs) was over the moon in being able to fight a title eliminator in his Minneapolis (Minn.) hometown, with the show playing to a sold-out crowd at the Minneapolis Armory where he has long served as a viable draw.

The bout was his second since watching his super middleweight title reign come to a close, losing a 12-round decision to James DeGale just four months after his Dec. 2017 unseating of the 2008 Olympic Gold medalist and reigning 168-pound titlist in a major upset.

Having rebounded with a win at home last August, Truax was positioned into a title eliminator where the winner would face another Caleb—unbeaten recently crowned titlist Caleb Plant—later this year. The mandatory slot remained vacant, however, after an unintentional clash of heads left Truaz with a gushing cut over his eyelid which couldn’t be contained and thus prompting the early stoppage.

Because the bout only went two rounds and ended on a foul, the official verdict was a technical draw. It extended the unbeaten streak of Quillin (34-1-1, 23KOs) to three straight since his lone career loss, though not at all how the former middleweight titlist wanted to leave the ring that evening.

Quillin claimed a middleweight title in a 12-round win over Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam in Oct. 2012 at the first-ever boxing event at Barclays Center. Three defenses followed until the Chicago-born Brooklynite was persuaded by adviser Al Haymon to give up the title in exchange for bigger plans beginning with the launch of PBC in 2015.

It hasn’t exactly led to prosperity, as Quillin is just 3-1-0-1NC post-title reign, including a draw with Andy Lee in a fight where he missed weight and a shocking 1st round knockout loss to Daniel Jacobs, both fights taking place in 2015 at Barclays.

The winner of the August 31 title eliminator will still serve as mandatory to the title currently held by Plant, who defends on July 20 versus unbeaten but untested Mike Lee.

With the announcement of the August 31 show unofficially confirms a calendar switch, as the schedule currently had September 1 assigned to a PBC on Fox date. The pre-Labor Day slot remains intact, as it precedes the start of National Football League (NFL) although still coming as part of a busy college football weekend. 

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for krikya360.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox