I’ve no regrets about when I threw in towel
Exclusive big-hitting column from Manchester’s legendary trainer on all things boxing I KNEW ENDING THE FIGHT WAS ENDING SCOTT’S CAREER
I GOT some stick from some people who thought I didn’t throw in the towel soon enough in Scott Quigg’s defeat to Jono Carroll.
As a trainer, it is often the hardest decision you have to make, to pull a fighter out.
And you could see from Scott’s reaction, he wasn’t happy that I stopped the fight.
Yet on Sky, and elsewhere, people were having a go, saying I should have stopped it sooner.
The week before, Mark Breland threw in the towel on Deontay Wilder during his fight with Tyson Fury.
This one was different. Then, he was saving his fighter for another day. With Scott, I knew throwing the towel in was ending his career. It’s a big decision.
I wanted to give him every chance, the last thing he wanted was to end his career having the towel thrown in.
You have to make a decision and stick with it, and I have no regrets.
As I was leaving the arena I was getting stick from some of the crowd for throwing in the towel, then I head they were going in hard on me on Sky for not stopping it earlier.
The people who are saying that should know better, for they have been in those situations.
Scott said to me when I stopped it that he wasn’t getting beat up, and he wasn’t. He wasn’t in trouble, he wasn’t being dropped.
It was a 120-109 fight in terms of points, and I have seen plenty of them on Sky before with people not talking about throwing in towels.
The same people weren’t saying I should have pulled him out in round five when he broke his jaw against Carl Frampton!
We had a discussion with Scott two rounds before, he went out, produced a bit more, but it just wasn’t to be. When I threw the towel in, Scott wasn’t happy about it. Sometimes you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
He had a good training camp, he did everything we asked him to, we got the ideal sparring partners. Everything Carroll did on the night we knew he was going to do.
But very much like Anthony Crolla’s last fight, he had a great camp but you don’t know until you get into that ring on fight night how you are going to perform. And when Scott Quigg got in there, he just wasn’t Scott Quigg.
We gave him every chance we could to go and win the fight, but once I could see Carroll could sense the finish and thought he might try and put it on him, I pulled Scott out of there.
He has had a fantastic career. He has been a fantastic ambassador for boxing in this area, very much like Crolla.
They are two kids who weren’t expected to win world titles, weren’t expected to pack out arenas, but they both did.
Through hard work, dedication and belief, they rung every bit of talent out of themselves. They are very much two peas in the same pod.
It’s the end of a generation now both have finished. We are now waiting for the next bunch of Manchester kids to come through and carry on their legacy.
If he wants to remain in boxing the door is always open. He can come and help out in the gym. I will always be there for him.
He will make a good coach, although because he had such high standards for himself, he will get heartbroken by fighters who don’t have the same drive he had as a fighter. But Scott has had a great career.