Middleweight Jason Quigley (16-1, 12 KOs) suffered his first loss in the paid ranks when his corner stopped the fight at the end of the ninth round against Tureano Johnson (21-2-1, 14 KOs) at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California.

The Donegal native, Jason Quigley, made a decent start to the fight, but from the third round on he played right into Johnson’s arms by making the fight an inside war.  The veteran Johnson looked the stronger man, and he started to punish Quigley, snapping his head back on several occasions with ferocious uppercuts.

As the rounds progressed, the fight developed into a one-sided beatdown as Johnson completely dominated the fight, switching stances and landing at ease. As much as Quigley tried to stop the tsunami of punches coming his way, he was battered and bruised and shipped a tremendous amount of punishment.

At the end of the ninth round, a disoriented Quigley returned to his corner.  Trainer Dominic Ingle looked at the cut and swollen face of his charge, and despite Quigley saying he was willing to continue, Ingle made the right decision to retire his fighter on the stool.

“I have to go back and have a sit down with my team and see what is next, what is the next move, see what the next option is. I am going to have to look and think myself and see if I am mentally ready to go back and to get ready to believe that I am going to be a world champion again after a heavy loss like that, so there are a few things I have to go over and I have to look at,” Quigley told Donegal Sports Talk Podcast on Friday.

While paying respect to the winner, Quigley was honest about where it went awry. “The game plan was obviously to keep him off, as he is a come-forward fighter and he likes to get inside and let his shots go.  To be honest, I couldn’t keep him off, and I let him get inside too much," said the 28-year-old.