Stunning quickfire win for Jason Quigley on Hopkins-Smith undercard

Jason Quigley rounded off his 2016 tonight with another stunning Stateside win.

The Donegal middleweight, who last fought in May, scored a first round stoppage on the undercard of ‘The Final 1’ – Bernard Hopkins v Joe Smith Jr, at The Forum in Inglewood, California.

In his previous fight Quigley had taken a step up to face, and widely outpoint, James De La Rosa, and the Golden Boy fighter continued this high level of opposition against Puerto Rican knockout artist Jorge Melendez.

The Caribbean puncher brought an eye-watering KO ratio of 28 stoppages in 30 wins, but it was Quigley who proved his power in the opening round, downing his opponent thrice in the first two minutes before the towel was thrown in from the Melendez corner.

The Ulsterman weighed in at a career-lowest 159.5lbs and looked sharp, quickly knocking down the Puerto Rican with a big right. Melendez rose, but another Quigley flurry sent him down again. His opponent beat the count but was immediately returned to the canvas, with a straight shot sending him down onto a knee. Melendez again beat the count but Quigley would go for the kill and the corner would compassionately throw in the towel as their man took punishment on the ropes

The quickfire win sees Quigley improve his flawless professional record to 12(10)-0, while a shell-shocked Melendez drops to 30(28)-8(4)-1.

The Ballybofey boxer will look to approach world level in 2017, and will be joined at The Rock Gym under Manny Robles by former Irish amateur team-mate Mick Conlan.

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Joe O’Neill and Gavan Casey look ahead to 2017 in episode 1 of The Irish Boxing Show