Scott Quigg vs. Mario Briones on Oct.20 in Boston on Saunders-Andrade card

By Boxing News - 10/01/2018 - Comments

Image: Scott Quigg vs. Mario Briones on Oct.20 in Boston on Saunders-Andrade card

By Tim Royner: Scott Quigg will be fighting 32-year-old journeyman Mario Briones in an eight round scheduled fight on the undercard of WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders vs. Demetrius Andrade on October 20 on DAZN at TD Garden in Boston, Mass.

This is not a great fight, let me tell you. Briones (29-7-2, 21 KOs) has lost three out of his last five fights, and he’s coming off of a 3rd round knockout loss to Felix Caraballo (9-1-2, 7 KOs) last July.

Briones was also knocked out in the 3rd round by Oscar Jorge Lara last year in May 2017. It’s understandable on Quigg’s promoter Eddie Hearn’s part to match him against a soft opponent in Briones, as he was beaten pretty bad by World Boxing Organization featherweight champion Oscar Valdez seven months ago in a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision on March 10.

Quigg (34-2-2, 25 KOs) suffered a broken nose, and took a horrendous beating at the hands of the highly talented two-time Olympian Valdez (24-0, 19 KOs). Although Quigg did inflict some damage of his own in breaking Valdez’s jaw in the 5th round after hurting him, it came at a heavy cost in the punishment that he absorbed in the fight. The fight was so one-sided that you can question why Quigg’s corner didn’t pull the plug on having the match stopped by the 8th round. Quigg stayed out there and took needless punishment in a fight that he wasn’t going to win.

Quigg wants another world title shot, but he’s going to need to veer around fighting Valdez again because the Mexican star has his number. Valdez is supposed to be coming back from his broken jaw at some point in 2019. His promoters at Top Rank aren’t going to rush him back so soon after a damaging fight like that one. Quigg landed some big shots before the fight got really out of hand in the second half of the contest.

The ideal fight for Quigg is to fight the winner of Josh Warrington vs. Carl Frampton. Quigg would have a chance of beating either of those two, especially Warrington. Quigg fought Frampton to a standstill in losing a 12 round split decision in February 2016. That was a fight in which Quigg suffered a broken jaw early in the fight. The combiation of the movement from Frampton and the jaw injury caused Quigg problems in the first half of the fight. In the second half of the bout, Quigg chose to fight his heart out and he control over the fight and gave Frampton all kinds of problems down the stretch.

As far as the main event between Saunders and Andrade, it’s still too early to know whether that fight is going to take place or not. Saunders tested positive for a banned substance, and the situation is now under investigation by the WBO and Massachusetts State Athletic Commission. If Saunders is suspended and stripped of his WBO title, then the main event could end up being Tevin Farmer vs. James Tennyson.