Jason Quigley - The Return

Jason Quigley is about to begin The Rebuild – and who better than Andy Lee to guide him back towards the top? After all, Lee knows all about The Rocky Road from world title contender to forgotten fighter. He put every drop of blood, sweat and tears into his career to earn himself a crack at the WBC world middleweight title in 2012 but it all went wrong on a sweltering summer night in El Paso against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. He then had to deal with the devastation of losing his beloved trainer and mentor, Emanuel Steward, and look for somewhere to start again from scratch. Lee found a new coach in Adam Booth and, two and a half years later, pulled off an unforgettable victory when he stopped Matt Korobov in Las Vegas to win the WBO world middleweight belt. Luckily for Quigley, he is not starting from scratch. Lee showed it can be done. In his last outing, Quigley was defeated by Demetrius Andrade for the WBO belt Lee previously held but it was another Irish boxing world title night where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Lee had visa issues and couldn’t attend. And Quigley’s game-plan – to feel his way into the fight and figure out his man – went kerplunk when he suffered a broken jaw in the very first round. He’s been clipped since – first by an O’Neills Size 5 – and knows he’s good to go. The comeback date has been secured – April 1 at the National Stadium – and the opponent will be Kim Poulsen of Denmark. The Rebuild has begun, as both Quigley and Lee tell Kevin Byrne following a lively press conference at the National Stadium. Kev also catches up with Limerick boxing brothers Paddy and Edward Donovan, who fill him in on their sparring sessions at home and abroad, and Lanzarote-based former Irish pro Jonathan O’Brien, who’s now coaching fighters over there. He bemoans the recent state of Dublin boxing but, with a new partnership in Elite Sheer on the scene for the Quigley comeback (and pro debut in Ireland), as well as a Waterford card and a Katie Taylor homecoming on the horizon, there’s reason to be cheerful for fight fans in the starved south.

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.