Scott Quigg knocks out Jamie Arthur to retain British title

Scott Quigg rose from the canvas to knock out Jamie Arthur in the eighth round and successfully defend his British super-bantamweight title for the first time on Saturday night in Bolton.

The referee controversially stopped the fight midway through the eighth round after Quigg hurt Arthur with a left hook to the body which made the Welshman turn away from his opponent.

It was an anticlimactic finish but Quigg was ahead on points and in total control of the fight, despite being sent to the canvas early on.

Quigg was floored in the fourth round after Arthur caught him off balance and sent him to the canvas with a short left jab, but the man from Bury was smart and took a knee to regain his composure and finish the round strongly.

The fight had started at a slow pace as both Quigg and Arthur tried to look for openings from distance, with neither having much success.

After the knockdown Quigg, changed tactics and began to fight more aggressively on the front foot taking the space away from Arthur and landing powerful blows to the body and head.

The rest of the fight followed in the same fashion, Quigg landing the more telling and damaging blows with Arthur struggling to reassert his early success.

The victory improved Quigg’s perfect record to 24 wins, 17 by the way of knockout and handed him his first defence of his British title.

The defeat was the sixth of Arthur’s career and the fourth of in his last six, leaving his record at 18 wins, four by the way of knockout and six defeats.

After the fight Scott Quigg said: “I caught him with a good body shot and he caught me square on the chin with a flash knock down. He’s a dangerous fighter. If he wants a rematch we’ll give him a rematch.”

Meanwhile, Jamie Arthur responded to whether or not the fight should have been stopped: “No, it was a good shot but I was off balance. It was turning into an absolute barnstormer of a fight, but like I said it was a disappointing end.”