Jason Quigley continues his winning ways under new guidance.

The 28-year old California-based Irishman made quick work of Mexico’s Fernando Marin, scoring a third round knockout in their middleweight heat Thursday evening at The OC Hangar in Costa Mesa, California.

A knockdown in round three brought an immediate halt to the one-sided contest.

Quigley was aggressive yet poised in the opening round, firing off combinations and catching Marin with clean power shots. The pacing of the round allowed Quigley to establish his dominance while forcing Marin out of whatever game plan he had in store heading into the evening as a heavy underdog.

Action picked up considerably in round two, with Quigley finding Marin an all-too inviting target. The Irish middleweight connected on 49 of 74 punches in the round, landing a frightening 75% of his power shots in the round (41 of 55). To his credit, Marin absorbed the incoming and—at least to that point—never came close to hitting the deck, although his leaky defense was never a path for a long night at the office.

The high output in the round left Quigley breathing hard in his corner in between rounds, though his heart rate calmed by the soothing approach of head trainer and former middleweight champion Andy Lee.

Quigley closed the show in round three, continuing to serve as the aggressor while Marin chased without purpose. A clean combination upstairs was punctuated with a right hand which caught Marin directly on the right orbital bone, prompting the Mexican to clutch his eye and collapsing to the canvas in a heap.

Referee Jerry Cantu immediately waved off the contest at 1:47 of round three.

The win is Quigley’s second in a row following a shocking knockout loss to Tureano Johnson last July.

“Working with Andy is great, I’m progressing with each fight,” Quigley (18-1, 14KOs) told DAZN’s Jessica Rosales after scoring his second straight win, in which he enjoyed a massive 85-6 advantage in punch connects. “It’s the first fight I really enjoyed my performance in a long time. I made a lot of sacrifices; I made a lot of changes. My career was in limbo for a little bit, with injuries and different things, moving camps and moving trainers.

“Tonight showed I did the best thing possible for me and it’s starting to show.”

With each fight, a little more doubt is removed as Quigley literally punches his way back into contention. So much that he felt confident in doing something he’s never done before in his career—call out a divisional rival.

This one comes with a little extra motivation.

“I’ve never called anyone out in my life. I never said anything like that before, but Jaime Munguia beat a fellow Irishman,” noted Quigley of the former junior middleweight titlist who stopped Ireland’s Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan in his middleweight debut earlier this month. “He beat a fellow Irishman of mine in Dennis Hogan as well (last April).

“I’m not one to call these lads out but I want to be a world champion.” 

The bout aired live on DAZN.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox