Jason Quigley believes ’this is my time’

Jason Quigley will face Florida's Howard Reece in his debut professional fight on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas.

The former Irish European Amateur Champion and World Championship finalist faces Reece in a scheduled four round middleweight contest.

The Donegal 23-year-old, who decided to turn professional earlier this year rather than stick with the Irish amateur set up under Head Coach Billy Walsh, fights on the undercard of the 'Hope and Glory' promotion.

The headline bout is Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, one of the biggest draws in boxing, against Erislandy Lara in a junior middleweight bout.

Quigley received his Golden Boy offer on the back of winning a gold medal at the European Championships in Minsk last summer and followed that up by becoming the first Irishman to take silver at the World Amateur Championships in October, losing out to Zhanibek Alimkhanuly of Kazakhstan.

Reece has lost six of his eight professional fights. This will be his sixth bout of 2014, his lone win coming against Burthin Rosseau in March. Prior to that he defeated Viktor Kulakovski in October 2013, both wins coming by KO.

Reece was himself beaten by KO in the first round last month by Cuban Idel Torriente. It was light middleweight Torriente’s first professional fight.

“I like to be a boxer, I like to get into that ring and show my skills, show my talent, be fast, be sharp and just get to the point, do what I have to do inside that ring,” Quigley said to Reuters.

“Coming into the professional game, everybody thinks that you have to close up your defence and keep coming forward fighting, which I think isn’t correct if you look at the top fighters in the world.

“Just look at number one Mayweather. He’s an absolute genius with his boxing skills and his defensive technique is absolutely brilliant, so I try to idolise him.”

Quigley added that he found it difficult to leave the amateur ranks but the decision came down to timing. From nowhere in Irish boxing last year he became the European champion and World finalist in a matter of months.

“Of course it wasn’t easy but, deep down, I’ve always wanted to turn professional, I’ve always wanted to be a professional world champion,” he said. “This is my time now to make a move into the professional ranks.

“As I started out as an amateur, things started going really well for me and the Olympics started to become a very big possibility. That was a goal of mine, to make the Olympics, but then I had an amazing year in 2013.

“I beat the reigning number one in the world and the world champion in Evhen Khytrov, the Ukrainian, at the European Championships and I went on to win gold there. I went on then to win the silver medal in the world championships in Kazakhstan.”