Warren eyes up Quigg

11:50am Tuesday 7th October 2008

BURY boxing ace Scott Quigg is in the sights of top promoter Frank Warren.

The 19-year-old rising star, who has a 100 per cent record of nine victories in his professional career, caught the eye of Warren when he made his debut on the Sky cameras in July.

Super bantamweight Quigg stopped Italian Angelo Villani in style on his screen debut, and now Warren, who has managed Naseem Hamed, Nigel Benn, Joe Calzaghe and Ricky Hatton, wants the local lad to sign up with him.

“Frank Warren has spoken about me with my trainer (Brian Hughes),” said Quigg. “He said he wants to get me under his banner, but I will only go out at the right time.

“He is under pressure to put good fights on for shows. Television don’t want rubbish fights, so you could end up in the ring with tougher people and you have to be ready.

“Hopefully I will be ready to go with him in a couple of fights. That way a fight I might regard as being tough now would be easy and I would be up against better opposition.”

Quigg continued: “Being televised was good. A lot more people want to come and watch me now. Television does get my name about, even though we are not trying to get too much limelight yet.

“When I was on Sky, Brian didn’t want my fight to be shown because he wants to keep me under the radar and avoid the hype. Sometimes the hype can get to people’s head but that fight when I was on Sky means nothing now. It has gone. If I get knocked out in my next fight, it shows the Sky fight meant nothing. You have to make sure you don’t let it get to your head.”

Quigg, who trains at Collyhurst and Moston Lads Club, is fighting on a Frank Warren bill at Preston Guild Hall on November 14. However, he has a fight on November 1 at Stalybridge to contend with first.

The teenager has just returned from a trip to New York to train in some of the best gyms in the Big Apple.

While across the pond, Quigg also watched Paulie Malignaggi in training ahead of the American’s clash with Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas next month.

The journey Stateside provided Quigg with plenty to think about, and the difference in fight styles was something the rising star noticed most.

“New York was a good learning experience for me,” said Quigg. “I met Malignaggi and picked up a few good things from him.

“The thing I noticed most was that they are more relaxed over there. They are not tense, everything flows. The British fighters can be robotic and stiff, while the boxers over there are relaxed and let everything flow. In America and Mexico, they actually knock people out cold when they get a knockout. Over here, you rarely see a British fighter knocking someone clean out. That is due to them being more relaxed.

“It’s all about timing. Proper knockouts are what the fans want to see and I have been practicing stuff like that.

“We were taught how to stay relaxed and then pounce when we saw an opening.”