QUIGLEY’S PERFECT RETURN

JASON QUIGLEY announced his return to the ring in stunning style in Boston on Saturday night, knocking out Daniel Rosario with a vicious left hook to the body in the sixth round. It maintained the Donegal man’s perfect start to his professional career as he has now won his first 14 bouts in the middleweight ranks. A broken hand sustained during his last bout meant that Quigley has been out of action for more than a year. And the Ballybofey native has made some big decisions during that time, relocating from Los Angeles to Sheffield, where he is now under the tutelage of Dominic Ingle. It took Quigley a couple of rounds to shake off the cobwebs and he admitted afterwards that there was some doubt in his mind as to how his right hand would react within the fight. ‘After over a year out of the ring, this was a great fight to get me back in the swing of things. My team helped me to break my opponent down,’ he said afterwards. ‘I knew this was the perfect fight to come back and see where I’m at because he’s a tough kid. I can see why he was never stopped before, he was one tough fighter. But I broke him down early on and shook the ring-rust off myself, I took him out. ‘Of course, there were a lot of doubts in my head about letting my right hand go but I hurt him early and that quashed those doubts.’ Quigley had hurt the teaktough Puerto Rican with a monstrous right in the second round but referee Mike Ryan incorrectly deemed that Rosario had slipped, rather than calling it a knockdown. And while Rosario tried to drag Quigley into a brawl, the 26-year-old Ballybofey man (left) showed his maturity by relying on his skills. Ingle barked instructions to Quigley in the corner and in the sixth round, despite Rosario bleeding from his nose, he went after the body. The Puerto Rican went down during the round after a cracking left hook to his liver and while he managed to beat the count, there was no coming back when Quigley nailed him with a similar punch just before the bell to end the round. Quigley, who is ranked sixth by the WBC, has promised ‘to make a lot of noise’ in the middleweight division in 2018. If Saturday night is anything to go by, this coming year could belong to the affable Donegal man. Also on the Golden Boy-promoted card, unbeaten Mayo light-welterweight Ray Moylette won his ninth pro bout with an unanimous decision over Irish-American brawler Matt Doherty.