By Jake Donovan

The HBO crew at ringside in Cancun, Mexico declared that unbeaten middleweight Peter Quillin has arrived.

The transplanted New Yorker certainly has tons of upside. But the statement itself was much like his 6th round stoppage over Craig McEwan – a tad premature.

Quillin boxed his way to a virtual shutout over the Scottish prospect through the first five rounds of action in their televised co-feature. However, the fight itself wasn’t always pretty to watch, as the lefty versus righty matchup produced a number of headbutts, of which McEwan was the one left worse for the wear.

Massive swelling developed around McEwan’s right eye as early as the third round, and Quillin treated the wound as a target for his jab and right hand, both of which inflicted considerable damage.

As the fight progressed, it became clear that Quillin was going to surpass the performance by Andy Lee earlier in the year, who fought McEwan tooth and nail before scoring a last round stoppage.

Perhaps the referee sensed this as well, as he abruptly stopped the contest midway through the 6th round while McEwan appeared still capable of defending himself. Quillin connected with a check hook that caused his opponent to pitch forward, leaving himself open for another left hook and a right hand. The final shot jarred McEwan, prompting the referee to act – many will argue, overreact – and stop the contest.

No official time was announced, at least on air.

Quillin improves to 26-0 (20KO) with the win, racking up his fifth straight stoppage as he impresses in his HBO debut.

McEwan suffers his second straight loss as he falls to 19-2 (10KO). Both losses have come on HBO and in 2011.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/JakeNDaBox or submit questions/comments to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com