After a 53-week hiatus, Jason Quigley returned to the ring in style on Sunday morning.
Immediately after winning his first pro title, it was clear that Ballybofey's Jason Quigley would be out for a while.
In March 2017, the Ballybofey native scored a hard-earned unanimous decision victory over Glen Tapia to win the NABF strap. It was expected to be a relatively easy night's work for Quigley, but his early dominance waned as the fight progressed. While he rocked Tapia in the early rounds, he was simply outboxing him and not landing with intentions by the end of the fight.
Then the image emerged after the fact of Quigley's primary weapon swollen up to the size of a melon. This provided an explanation for what appeared to be an off-night for the Donegal man. Doctors would describe it as a one-in-10 million injury - a broken hand that detached and shredded a major tendon in his right wrist.
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Comeback
Surgery and rehab followed, but it would take a full year for Quigley to be able to compete again. His comeback would come against Daniel Rosario on a Golden Boy on ESPN
event at Marina Bay SportsPlex, Quincy, in the wee hours of Sunday morning,
Earlier in the night, Mayo's Ray Moylette eased his way to victory over former MMA fighter Matt Doherty. He outclassed the American to improve his record to 9-0. He wasn't the only Irishman to maintain a pristine record that night as Quigley overcame some ring rust to put the Peurto Rican away.
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Rosario came out all guns blazing from the get-go. However, it soon became apparent that he was in over his head. In the second, Quigley was robbed of a knockdown that the referee incorrectly deemed to be a slip.
The longer the fight went on, the more Quigley frustrated his adversary. Rosario soon came to the conclusion that he probably wasn't going to win a boxing match, so he tried his utmost to turn it into a fight. Dirty tactics like rabid punching and cheap shots were implemented, but this only appeared to work against him.
The sixth round is where the bout sprang to life. A seismic left hook to the liver saw Rosario crumble to the canvas at the midway point of the round. Rosario went down in a heap but showed incredible gameness to beat the 10 count.
Once he got back to his feet, both men started swinging. Rosario wanted a grimey brawl and Quigley was more than willing to provide him with one. It was a risky manoeuvre and Quigley ate his fair share of punches in the wild exchanges, but in the end, it paid off.
Another left hook landed flush as the time wound down and it was all over. For the first time in his career, Rosario was finished. His first knockout defeat, on his 30th birthday of all days, saw his record go to 11-4. Meanwhile, Quigley improved to 14-0 with 11 of those wins coming by way of KO.
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