BURY boxer Scott Quigg may have ended the year on a positive note with victory at the Manchester Arena but he admits he cannot wait to move on from the "worst year of his professional career".

The 28-year-old went into 2016 in confident mood as he prepared for his titanic showdown with super bantamweight rival Carl Frampton.

But defeat by split decision saw him lose his WBA world title and to compound his misery after a first professional defeat, Quigg revealed post-fight he had suffered a broken jaw.

It led to several months on the sidelines and, by his own admission, a lot of soul-searching while he could not be in his natural surroundings at the gym.

Quigg told Bury Times: "The Frampton defeat was difficult to take, especially being injured.

"Straight away I wanted to be back in the gym and wanted to put things right where I went wrong.

"Being out of the ring was hard. I was fed up – I had lost the biggest fight of my career.

"I don’t like using the word ‘depressed’ because there are people out there suffering with depression and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

"But I was really down and didn’t know what to do with myself.

"I had no routine to my day and it was a struggle.

"When I first got back in the gym, looking to shift around three stone of weight I had piled on, I didn’t enjoy it.

"Normally after a fight you have a week or so off then get back in the gym and it takes a fortnight to get your rhythm back.

"It took me about seven weeks.

"Every day I hated going to the gym. I wanted to turn the car around every day.

"But my mum kept on at me telling me to get to the gym or waking me up to go out running. She kicked me out of bed to go running and I hated it.

"Then one Wednesday in the seventh week, I walked out of the gym and thought ‘I enjoyed that’.

"I turned a corner and from that point I have not looked back.

"It has all made me a stronger person, both physically and mentally."

Quigg moved up a weight division on his return when he beat Mexican Jose Cayetano with a ninth-round knockout.

Frampton is again in his sights for a rematch down the line and he admits February's defeat made him re-evaluate things.

He added: "After the Frampton fight, the worst part was sat in the dressing room and seeing my mum and fiancée Bev come in and burst into tears.

"I promised my mum before I left the house that week I would win.

"That hurt the most – not keeping that promise to my mum.

"I will make sure next time I will put it right.

"Obviously there are things we have learnt from that fight.

"We could have used different tactics or maybe started off faster.

"But we thought the plan we had was the right thing to do at the time.

"You have to learn from it and move on.

"I am confident that fight will come around again and I will be ready for it to make the right adjustments to win this time.

"How you bounce back can define you as a person.

"It is definitely the worst year I have had as a pro – 100 per cent.

"It didn’t start off well with the defeat.

"It has been getting better since my jaw was fixed and I got back in the gym.

"It finished on a high and hopefully 2017 will be better.

"Everyone is still behind me like Eddie (Hearn, promoter), Joe (Gallagher, trainer) and my family.

"But the main person you need is yourself and I feel like myself again.

"My aim now is to become a world champion again next year."