“You Can’t Stop Father Time”- Quigg Retires

Scott Quigg (35-3-2, 26 KOs) on Saturday night was in the ring for the first time after being sidelined with a jaw injury that had him out of the ring for 17 months.

Once the bell rang in the main event in Manchester against Dublin southpaw Jono Carroll, not only did it look like it, it was just tough to watch the 31-year-old former champion was battered around by Carroll in a loss where the towel tossed in to stop the one-way traffic.

Quigg speaking with the Bury Times after the defeat to Carroll in his locker room, he decided that he’d keep that towel hanging and call it a career in the ring.

“The thing is with me I don’t kid myself,” Quigg told the Bury Times.

“I’m a realist, and I’m always real with people and sometimes I upset people because of how real I speak. But I’m the same with myself and I knew if I didn’t win tonight the gloves were getting hung up. Unfortunately, I didn’t win so I’m not going to go back on my word. People will say ‘don’t make any hasty decisions’ but there’s nothing hasty about this.”

Quigg’s main goal of returning back in the ring before the bout with Carroll was to have one more run at becoming world champion which he held the WBA (Regular) super-bantamweight title from 2013 to 2016. This last contest was at featherweight which Carroll won in the tenth round.

“I want to become a world champion again and this is too hard of a sport just to stick around to just make the numbers up. It’s a dangerous sport. So if I’m not good enough to become world champion again then it’s time to hang them up and find something else to do which is going to be the hard thing. I just knew it wasn’t there. In the changing rooms warming up I thought ‘meh, I’ll get there’.

“And then the fight started and sometimes it can take me two or three rounds to get going but after about four rounds I just couldn’t seem to get anything going. My timing was off, I was missing wildly, my distance was out and I realized it wasn’t there. If you’re playing football or cricket or tennis or whatever, if you’re timing is out you get away with it. But in boxing when you realize it’s not there then, unfortunately, you’re getting beaten up,” Quigg said.

These statements echo what former world champion and current DAZN broadcast analyst Sergio Mora said after the fight as well on his Twitter.

Almost all boxers end their career with a beat down & a loss. That’s just a fact. But it wouldn’t have to be that way if they simply ignored their heart & listened to their legs. #boxing

— Sergio Mora (@TheLatinSnake_) March 8, 2020

While Mora won his last bout in the ring against Alfredo Angulo in 2018, Mora, like Quigg, saw the writing on the wall.

I realized my legs were gone preparing for my last fight w/Angulo. I won the fight, but Perro was closing IN while my legs were checking OUT.

— Sergio Mora (@TheLatinSnake_) March 8, 2020

Quigg reflecting on the fight stated this was it and was glad he found out sooner rather than later.

“Me three years ago, he wouldn’t have lasted and that’s taking nothing away from him, he boxed a great fight tonight, but a couple of years ago I’m levels above. Unfortunately, you can’t stop father time. I’ve had a good career and I’d rather have been in there tonight and found out that it wasn’t there anymore rather than wondering whether I could have had one or two more fights,” Quigg noted.