Quigley and Lee to showcase Irish boxing

Donegal's Jason Quigley faces Lanny Dardar on Friday night in Los Angeles hoping to secure the fourth win of his professional career. The Quigley bout, less than a week after Carl Frampton successfully defended his WBO belt in Belfast, continues a period where prominent Irish boxers are successfully making their way in the professional ranks.

Quigley meets Dardar at The Belasco Theatre outside Los Angeles.

Dardar, a native of Louisiana, has had six fights with one of them, his first, unverified. But more importantly the 27-year-old American has lost two of his last three outings.

It is Quigley’s fourth pro bout following last year’s wins over Howard Reece, Fernando Najera and Greg McCoy, which were all recorded inside the distance.

Quigley’s promotional company Golden Boy Promotions is getting back to its roots with the show the first of a new series named ‘La Fight Club.’

With fighters like Quigley in mind, Oscar De La Hoya is trying to construct a conveyor belt system.

“’La Fight Club’ will be a farming system for Golden Boy Promotions,” he explained. “We know every fighter on these shows will eventually graduate to the national stage and eventually move on to fight championship fights.”

Limerick middleweight Lee defends his belt for the first time when he meets American Peter Quillin in New York on April 11th after mandatory challenger Billy Joe Saunders stepped aside with an option to fight the winner.

Undefeated with 31 career wins (22 by KO), the 31-year-old Quillin is a former WBO champion but vacated his title last September.

The big thing for Lee, and a new departure for the business of boxing in the US, is that his bout is being shown on American national television. NBC has stepped into the boxing market and viewers will be able to watch fights outside of pay-per-view.

In an attempt to reverse the sport's decline, Haymon Boxing is using NBC's promotional muscle and the reach of old-fashioned primetime network television to reach viewers.

Five of this year’s broadcasts will air on Saturday nights on NBC, one of those featuring Lee’s WBO middleweight defence.

The first card will see Keith Thurman take on Robert Guerrero with Adrien Broner against John Molina Jr this weekend.

All the fighters are managed by Haymon and they will be the first primetime bouts on NBC in nearly 30 years.

Reports in the US say Haymon offered NBC in the region of $20 million to broadcast around 24 fight dates. If the audience grows and it proves to be successful, it could spell trouble for the traditional pay-for-view boxing channels.