And he did it in impressive fashion with a second-round knockout of Daniel Geale.

The boxing world should now sit up and take notice of the former Port Macquarie lad who attended Westport High School.

He had a close relationship with his grandmother who had looked after him since he was 18 months old.

Quinlan said he vividly remembered the morning he received the heartbreaking phone call informing him of her passing.

“I was on the way to a sparring session and I received the call at 7am that she had passed away peacefully in her sleep,” he said.

He said he learned from that heartbreaking experience that life was too short.

“Two days before that I was on the phone to her and she seemed healthy so it just made me realise it can all be over pretty quickly,” Quinlan said.

“Her passing pushed me even harder to win the fight because she always said to me that you can achieve whatever you want if you believe in yourself.

“I wanted to dedicate to the fight to her.”

Quinlan started boxing at an early age in Port Macquarie before he turned professional and moved to Sydney.

“My first trainers were Dean and Paul at the Port Macquarie PCYC and they taught me a lot back then,” he said.

“I moved from Port Macquarie to Sydney when I was 17 but I’d always come home to look after my nan.”

“I’ll always be a Port boy because I grew up there, but my family lives in Kempsey and I have trained a fair bit up there as well.”

He felt the win over Geale would open up more doors for him professionally.

“An opportunity came knocking and I took it with both hands despite people telling me they thought I wasn’t ready,” he said.

“I was told it was too early to be fighting Geale after only 10 fights,” he said.

“If you want to be the best you have to beat the best so hopefully this win will make people sit up and take notice.”