Quigg has Bury gripped with big-fight fever
Home-town hero Scott Quigg has sold over 1,000 tickets for his eight-round clash against Russia’s Andrey Kostin at the 1200 capacity Castle Leisure Centre in Bury on Saturday. The Bury super-bantamweight’s popularity, combined with some lobbying from his promoter Ricky Hatton, has persuaded Bury Council to lift their 13-year ban on professional boxing which was bizarrely introduced after Mike Tyson bit a chunk out of Evander Holyfield’s ear.
The undefeated Quigg, 17-0 (11), is on the verge of becoming a breakout star and is expected to challenge for a major title in his next fight providing he sees off Kostin. The Bury man was previously a successful Muay Thai combatant but switched fighting codes three years ago and hasn’t looked back.
“When Scott first came to us his feet were not balanced quite correctly so this was the main thing we had to address otherwise he may have gotten found out. He adapted to life as a professional boxer in a matter of weeks though. Scott’s a genuine student of the game and has been watching my collection of still video tapes containing great old fighters like Joe ‘Old Bones’ Brown, Willie Pep, Sandy Sadler and Barry McGuigan and has tried to emulate them in the gym,” explained Quigg’s trainer Brian Hughes to BoxRec News.
“In more recent times, Scott’s been studying tapes of Julio Cesar Chavez, Ricardo Lopez and Wilfredo Gomez, all these brilliant champions. We’ve been working on trying to teach Scott to emulate Gomez’s defensive skills and counterpunching and he’s become superb at it which has surprised a lot of people in the gym.”
After stopping 11 of his 17 opponents, including his last five in succession, the exciting Quigg has developed the reputation of being a natural puncher.
“There’s an old saying in boxing that some fighters are born punchers, well, in my opinion, they’re not. A few of them might be but like anything in life you have to perfect your art like a singer who has to train their voice or a pianist who has to play for hours on end. Some of Boxing’s best punchers, such as Joe Louis and Marvin Hagler, all had to practice throwing their punches correctly,” surmised Hughes.
“In the beginning, Scott was winning his contests on points (four of Quigg’s first six fights went the distance). We decided to get him working on the big heavy bag in the gym and taught him to turn his shoulders and hips into the punch but the key thing is speed. We got Scott to concentrate on throwing four punches in the blink of an eye and being the student that he is he continuously practised it and the knockouts have started to come. The kid’s a trainer’s dream,” the veteran trainer rejoiced.
Despite Quigg’s undoubted promise, a closer inspection of his record reveals that he has been matched with a high degree of caution to date. Only two of the 21-year-old’s 17 opponents have sported winning records and one of those, Angelo Villani, floored Quigg in the opening round In July 2008 before the Bury buzzsaw promptly turned the tables and stopped the Italian in the next session.Tomorrow’s opponent Andrey Kostin, will be the third however the Russian’s 20-14 record hardly provokes fear and the visitor has lost five of his last six.
“We have brought Scott along slowly but he’s been a pro for three years now and we’ve told Ricky Hatton that he’s ready now to be fighting for titles. No trainer, I don’t care who they are, particularly wants to know if his fighter can take a punch but in the gym you find these things out. Scott’s had a lot of good sparring against a lot of heavier fighters and he’s come through the tests very well. We think he’s got something that little bit special compared to others.”
With reigning British super-bantamweight champion Jason Booth primed for a European title assault or a possible summer world title challenge to IBF champion Steve Molitor, the British title could conceivably become vacant in the not too distant future. This could open the door for Quigg to contest the Lonsdale belt with fellow unbeaten stablemate Craig Lyon, or against the winner of tomorrow’s Prizefighter Super-Bantamweight tournament which will be played out whilst Quigg is entertaining Kostin 170 miles up the road.
“We were never approached about Prizefighter funnily enough. We would definitely have been interested in entering because it would have been good experience for Scott. I wouldn’t like to forecast who is going to win it now that Wayne McCullough is out but hopefully Scott can challenge for the British title before Christmas, we don’t care who it’s against,” added Hughes.
