'That world title is coming back to Ireland, full stop' - Quigley gets his shot versus unbeaten Andrade

LAST UPDATE | 4 Oct 2021

IRELAND’S JASON QUIGLEY [19-1, 14KOs] will challenge America’s Demetrius Andrade [30-0, 18KOs] for the latter’s middleweight world-title belt next month.

The Andy Lee-trained Quigley, a former European amateur champion and World Championship silver medalist, will take on Rhode Island native ‘Boo Boo’ near enough to the champion’s backyard: the pair will square off at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire, on 19 November in what will be the main event of a world-title quadruple-header live on DAZN.

Finn Valley native Quigley, in decidedly polite fashion, called out the undefeated Andrade following his own career-best victory over Golden Boy promotional stablemate Shane Mosley Jr in May.

Andrade’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, confirmed to The42 in early September that he had made an offer to Quigley’s team. After a few weeks’ worth of negotiations, the fight was officially confirmed this afternoon.

“This is everything that I’ve trained for. Everything I’ve done in my career has been to put myself in this position,” Quigley said.

“I’m grateful and honoured to be in this position. It’s a great feeling, a great time for me.

“We’re not there yet, though. This is part of the journey to becoming a world champion. I’m one fight away now. I’m at the stage of my career now where it’s time to start challenging for and winning world titles.

“He is a great champion,” Quigley added of Andrade. “He has been very avoided in the fight game because of his ability, because of how good he is. Any of the other world champions out there have avoided him because it’s a big risk for them to take.”

Demetrius Andrade (R). Joel Plummer Joel Plummer

Andrade, 33, won the then-vacant title by defeating Walter Kautondokwa three years ago. He has made four successful defences of his title since, including one against Dublin’s Luke Keeler a couple of months before the pandemic and, most recently, against Welsh outsider Liam Williams in April.

As Quigley touched upon, however, the American has yet to land a big-name opponent or a middleweight unification bout during his reign — a stick with which he is routinely beaten by his detractors and rivals. While Quigley himself might not on paper present the kind of challenge to silence Andrade’s critics, the Irishman possessed sufficient profile in America to appease broadcaster DAZN and land the biggest opportunity of his own career.

“November 19, it’s me again,” said Andrade.

Jason Quigley: world-rated, good amateur pedigree, decent skills, comes to fight, and hats off to him: he’s actually willing to step in the ring with me, which you can’t say for any of these other so-called top guys. On 19 November, though, I show him that there are levels to this game.

“Just keep winning, that’s all I can do. Go in there, handle my business, do my job, look sensational, come out healthy and then it’s onto the next.

“If you have a belt at 160 or 168 pounds, let’s go. Put the politics aside, have your people call Eddie. Let’s get down to business. Charlo, stop running your mouth, making up excuse after excuse. You’re a fighter: let’s fight, bro. GGG (Gennady Golovkin), where you at? Unify against [Ryota] Murata and then let’s put the three belts on the line next year.

“Canelo, you going to run up to 175? Cool, I can meet you there, no problem. First things first though, I need to go out on 19 November, defend my championship belt, and put on a spectacular performance — and that’s exactly what I plan on doing.”

Promoter Eddie Hearn added: “This is a fantastic quadruple header of world title action.

Demetrius wants to show the other champions that he is the man to beat at middleweight, so he needs to put on a big performance against a hungry and proud Irish challenger in Jason.

Jason Quigley. PA PA

The 30-year-old Quigley hit a significant roadblock just two years ago when he was stopped by fringe contender Tureano Johnson — his sole career reversal — but has bounced back under Lee’s tutelage and, in May, produced the most complete performance of his professional journey to edge Mosley in a humdinger.

The Ballybofey man is confident of building upon that 10-round display in his bid to upset the odds and achieve a life’s dream in New Hampshire in six weeks’ time. Indeed, despite the fight venue being only about 100 miles from Andrade’s hometown, Quigley anticipates he will have a sizeable crowd advantage on away soil.

This will be the next best thing to a hometown fight for me. I’ve seen the support I’ve had when I boxed in Boston twice. Those fights were nowhere near the magnitude of this one. I’m expecting a massive Irish support. The Irish will outweigh Andrade fans come fight night.

“It’s time now for me to go and get what I deserve, what I’ve worked hard for,” he added. “I’m going to enjoy the lead-up to this fight. It’s going to be ruthless and relentless – and that won’t change when I get into that ring.

“That world title is coming back to Ireland, full stop.”

There will be three other world-title bouts on the Andrade-Quigley undercard: Uzbekistan’s Murodjon Akhmadaliev [9-0, 7KOs] — a potential pound-for-pound operator who as an amateur lost the 2015 World Championship bantamweight final to Quigley’s former Irish team-mate Michael Conlan — defends his two super-bantamweight straps against American Ronny Rios [33-3, 16KOs], while Mexico’s flyweight titlist Julio Cesar Martinez [18-1, 14KOs] faces Puerto Rican challenger McWilliams Arroyo [21-4, 16KOs]. Meanwhile, in the second semi-final of Matchroom’s ‘Road to Undisputed’ women’s 140-pound tournament, America’s Kali Reis [18-7, 5KOs] takes on Canada’s Jessica Camara [8-2] for two belts and a spot in the final versus either Chantelle Cameron or Mary McGee.

- Originally published at 7am. Updated with quotes from Demetrius Andrade, Jason Quigley and Eddie Hearn at 16:09