By Terence Dooley
Liverpool's Tony Quigley suffered a scare against Artisom Salomka at the Velodrome in Manchester, in his four-threes "Prizefighter: The Super-Middleweights" warm-up contest. Quigley spoke to me prior to the fight, confirming that he had to take the bout in order to prove himself ready for the tournament, which takes place on March 23rd at Liverpool's Olympia venue. However, the 26-year-old former British 168lb title holder almost came a cropper after suffering a first round knock down, a left hook doing the damage.
Quigley (12st 13lb) rose quickly, winked at his corner and then tried to fight his way back into the session. This was Tony's first outing since his bitty split-decision loss to Paul Smith in October 2009. Salomka (12st 61/2lb) dropped a points decision to Tony Jeffries in the same month, his only action since that night saw him lose a six round decision to nonpareil Tomas Adamek in March of last year. Artisom, however, sensed that an upset was on the cards and harried Quigley throughout.
By round three, Quigley was looking for a big single shot, his legs looked weak and he fell in whenever he missed. Salomka maintained his activity during a frenzied, if messy, final session. The Belarus-based boxer looked to have done enough to take the verdict only for referee John Latham to deliver a draw, 38-38, at the final bell, much to the annoyance of Phillipe Fondu, representing the visitor.
The result means that Quigley can still enter Prizefighter. Tony, though, will have to find some of the form that saw him defeat Tony Dodson to win the Lonsdale belt in 2009 if he is to make an impact on the night. Quigley is now 13-2-1 (6); Salomka moves to 10-19-1 (3).
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