JASON QUIGLEY fell to the first defeat of his pro career as Tureano Johnson upset the odds at Fantasy Springs.
By Chris McNulty, Ringside at Fantasy Springs Special Events Center
At the close of the ninth round of the ten scheduled, Quigley’s trainer Dominic Ingle stopped the fight.
Quigley was rocked severely by a body shot in the ninth and had looked in bother before then.
Johnson claims the NABF title Quigley had held and is likely to get a world ranking out of this win.
Defeat drops Quigley to 16-1, 12KOs with Johnson improving to 21-2-1, 15KOs.
“This boy, he got heart. I threw the kitchen sink and the car behind me,” Johnson said as he returns to the mix in the 160lbs division.
“I’m here to be a world champion.
“Whoever got those belts, I want a Charlo, I want a Canelo, I want all of them!”
A bullish Johnson had warned Quigley to be ‘ready for war’ at the weigh-in.
The only two losses of Johnson’s 23-fight career pre-Quigley were to world-level opponents in the form of Curtis Stevens and Sergiy
Derevyanchenko.
Quigley began well in the opening two rounds, but the pendulum swung towards Johnson in the third.
With Quigley willing to trade on the inside, Johnson landed a lorry load of punishes in that third stanza.
The sixth was where Johnson really asserted his worth and there was a danger by then that Quigley was in bother.
Johnson took Quigley out of his rhythm.
Quigley showed plenty of guts and heart, but couldn’t claw the deficit back.
When he took to the stool at the end of the ninth, Quigley was banged up and he wouldn’t answer the bell for the tenth.
Quigley first had his mitts on the NABF strap in March 2017 when he
decisioned Glen Tapia – one of only four times the Ballybofey man had gone the distance as a pro.
After defending his belt last October with a unanimous decision win over Freddy Hernandez following a sometimes ugly brawl, Quigley had a ticking-over stoppage win against Mathias Eklund in London earlier this year.
Quigley went ten rounds with Tapia and Hernandez after previously
recording decision wins against Marchristopher Adkins (four rounds)
and James de la Rosa (10 rounds).
Since a 2015 destruction of County Derry’s Eamonn O’Kane in New York –
a win that put him as a mandatory challenger to Gennady Golovkin, a
bout that never happened due to a shoulder injury sustained – Johnson had won just once in three attempts.
However, this was a chance for the veteran to get back to world level
discussions again – and he did just that.
