By: Ste Rowen
Carroll falling to a decision loss to Tevin Farmer last March before bouncing back with a August win over 20-11-4, Eleazar Valenzuela. Quigg on the other hand suffered a broken jaw in his loss to Oscar Valdez, and then returning in his latest bout with a TKO of Mario Briones inside two rounds, five months ago.
Quigg was the more accomplished and favoured fighter pre-fight, but southpaw, Jono established the upper hand early on; firing off a strong jab that kept Scott’s quickfire attacks at bay. The former WBA champion seemed apprehensive to throw combinations, a look in his eyes that showed he was having flashbacks to his Carl Frampton and Valdez losses.
Rounds 3 through 7 saw the Irishman establish his dominance, but it wasn’t the prettiest fight to endure. Quigg, by now with a slightly busted nose, looked relatively confident coming forward, but appeared shocked when he was hit by the counters.
Back with his former coach, Joe Gallagher’s
instructions were simple when speaking to Scott in the corner, but the Bury
native just seemed unable to execute any formidable attack. Carroll had begun
to switch it up with accurate body shots and stymied everything his opponent
was trying to throw at him.
‘‘He was the better man; I was chasing him.’’ Scott Quigg said post-fight.
‘‘This was a must win fight. At my best I would’ve won tonight, on this
performance, I don’t know what’s left.’’
As the fight drew on, the home fight just
couldn’t come close to getting a grip with Carroll, who’s right jab and hooks
seemed to be landing every time he threw. And the fateful round 11 came around.
Jono, still on top, was cutting Quigg in half with sharp hooks to the body
before the towel was thrown in by Scott’s corner and the fight was ended. Carroll,
now 18-1-1 (4KOs), became the first man to stop the Quigg.
‘‘I’ve always said this was my time to shine…This is what dreams are made
of. When I was growing up, Quigg was one of my idols.
There wasn’t one point when I felt tired and you could see, when I had him on the ropes, I still had the power to whack those shots in.’’
This victory could setup a world title shot at super-featherweight for Jono, who before the bout, sat in number 8 in the IBF rankings.
On the undercard, Zach Parker continued his unbeaten professional run, improving to 19-0 (13KOs). The British super-middleweight got rid of 24-1, Rohan Murdock in the 11th round to claim the WBO Inter-Continental strap. In February Parker was number 2 in the WBO rankings, whilst Murdock was number 1, logic dictates that Parker, if he decides to, will be up for a world title shot before the end of the year.
The undercard also saw a trio of fighters returning to winning ways as…
Hughie Fury bounced back from a decision defeat to Alexander Povetkin to get rid of Pavel Sour within three rounds. Fury now moves to 24-3 (14KOs).
Robbie Davies Jr scored an underwhelming points victory over 16-16-3, Damian Yapur, but moved to 20-2 (13KOs).
And middleweight Jack Cullen returned to winning ways after his stoppage loss to Felix Cash last November, with a 2nd round finish of Tomas Andres Reynoso, and moves to 18-2 (9KOs)