Jason Quigley intends to cast aside bout in which he labored with a broken hand

Watching Southland-trained Irish middleweight Jason Quigley fail to put away veteran Glen Tapia in the March debut ESPN-Golden Boy main event seemed a disappointment.

Quigley (13-0) won a wide decision, but wasn’t able to stop from getting hit by an opponent who had lost his previous two bouts by stoppage.

In The Times, I wrote that Quigley “showed defensive flaws and his energy drained,” while his “expectations took a hit.”

Yet, it turned out in a later surgery that his right hand was injured by a second-round punch far more seriously than it appeared.

“I broke my metacarpal bone, I tore my flexor tendon,” Quigley said before Saturday’s Canelo Alvarez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. bout at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

“The doctor at Cedars-Sinai said that in surgery he hadn’t seen the likes of it … and I said, ‘Yeah, it hurt pretty bad.’”

So an apology was in order, given the harshness of my reporting.

Quigley quickly accepted.

“Sometimes, you say something and by the time it reaches me, it’s so much worse, but it’s all good. … I had a serious injury,” Quigley said.

He’s hopeful for an October return.

“I’m here to fight, to achieve as many goals as I set for myself and move on after being the best I can be.” Quigley said. “I have 13 fights. [Promoter] Golden Boy … might say they want me to fight Canelo or [Gennady Golovkin] and because I’m a fighter, I’d take it.

“But I’m also a smart man. Right now, I’m on the learning process. I’m here this week to do my homework because these boys [Alvarez, former middleweight champion Chavez Jr.] are at the level that I want to be at. I’m here to do my homework.”

Both men entered their pay-per-view matchup with 50 or more pro bouts.

“Look at the lads they had to fight coming up,” Quigley said. “I have a lot of learning to do, a lot of experience to get. Maybe after 17 fights, I’ll be ready to go for a world title.”

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

Twitter: @latimespugmire