Mark Hobson (boxer)

Mark Hobson (born 5 July 1976) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1997 to 2007. He challenged once for the WBO cruiserweight title in 2006. At regional level, he held the Commonwealth cruiserweight title from 2003 to 2006 and the British cruiserweight title twice between 2003 and 2007.

Early professional career

Hobson had his first professional contest on 9 June 1997, scoring a points win over Michael Pinnock in Bradford. For the first three and a half years of his career Hobson built up a respectable record of 14–1–1 with the only loss coming against Mark Levy in 1999. On 24 April 2001 Hobson challenged South African fighter Sebastiaan Rothmann at the Olympia in Liverpool for the WBU Cruiserweight title. The fight ended in a first stoppage defeat for Hobson after the fight was ended in the 9th round.^[1]

British and Commonwealth champion

Following the Rothmann defeat, Hobson took on Germany's future WBA world champion Firat Arslan at the Barnsley Metrodome Arena and was again stopped, this time on cuts in the seventh round. Four wins, including one over Lee Swaby, followed however as Hobson positioned himself for a shot at the vacant Commonwealth cruiserweight belt on 25 January 2003 pitching himself against Ugandan Abdul Kadou and winning the contest with a fourth round stoppage. One further win followed before Hobson made the first defence of his title against Robert Norton in a fight which also had the vacant British belt on the line. The fight which took place at the Ponds Forge Arena in Sheffield on 5 September 2003 saw Hobson become a double champion with a 12-round points win.

Further defences of both titles followed with wins over Tony Moran on 13 March 2004, Lee Swaby on 27 May 2004 and former champion and world title challenger Bruce Scott on 17 December 2004. Hobson took a break from the ring in 2005 but went on to make one further defence of both his belts on 1 June 2006 against John Keeton back at the Metrodome in Barnsley.

Further title wins and challenges

Following the win over Scott and his subsequent break from the ring, Hobson returned to action on 4 March 2006 to challenge Enzo Maccarinelli for the WBU cruiserweight title in a fight that was the chief support to Joe Calzaghe's destruction of Jeff Lacy at the MEN Arena in Manchester. The fight ended in a 12-round defeat for Hobson in what proved to be a tough defence for Maccarinelli.^[2] The Keeton defence followed before, on 8 September 2006, Hobson challenged for the WBU title at the third time of asking, defeating Pavol Polakovic at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Mayfair, London.

On 14 October 2006 Hobson returned to the MEN Arena in Manchester to once again take on Enzo Maccarinelli, this time for the WBO title in what was Maccarinelli's first defence of newly won world title. The fight ended in disappointment as Hobson was unable to match the performance of his first fight with the Welshman and suffered a first round stoppage.^[3]

Hobson's final fight before retiring from the ring was to challenge former victim John Keeton for the British title that Hobson himself had vacated. The fight on 29 September 2007 at the Hallam FM Arena in Sheffield ended in victory for Hobson once more, allowing him to retire from the sport as a British champion.^[4]

Professional boxing record

No.	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	Notes
33	Win	27–5–1	John Keeton	TKO	4 (12), 1:00	29 Sep 2007	Sheffield Arena, Sheffield, England	Won British cruiserweight title
32	Loss	26–5–1	Enzo Maccarinelli	TKO	1 (12), 1:11	14 Oct 2006	M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, England	For WBO cruiserweight title
31	Win	26–4–1	Pavol Polakovic	UD	12	8 Sep 2006	Grosvenor House, London, England	Won WBU cruiserweight title
30	Win	25–4–1	John Keeton	TKO	4 (12), 2:50	1 Jun 2006	Barnsley Metrodome, Barnsley, England	Retained British and Commonwealth cruiserweight titles
29	Loss	24–4–1	Enzo Maccarinelli	UD	12	4 Mar 2006	M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, England	For WBU cruiserweight title
28	Win	24–3–1	Bruce Scott	PTS	12	17 Dec 2004	Huddersfield Sports Centre, Huddersfield, England	Retained British and Commonwealth cruiserweight titles
27	Win	23–3–1	Lee Swaby	TKO	6 (12), 1:02	27 May 2004	Huddersfield Sports Centre, Huddersfield, England	Retained British and Commonwealth cruiserweight titles
26	Win	22–3–1	Tony Moran	TKO	3 (12), 2:10	13 Mar 2004	Huddersfield Sports Centre, Huddersfield, England	Retained British and Commonwealth cruiserweight titles
25	Win	21–3–1	Rob Norton	PTS	12	5 Sep 2003	Ponds Forge Arena, Sheffield, England	Retained Commonwealth cruiserweight title; Won vacant British cruiserweight title
24	Win	20–3–1	Muslim Biarslanov	TKO	2 (8), 1:20	10 May 2003	Huddersfield Sports Centre, Huddersfield, England
23	Win	19–3–1	Abdul Kadou	TKO	4 (12)	25 Jan 2003	Recreation Centre, Bridgend, Wales	Won vacant Commonwealth cruiserweight title
22	Win	18–3–1	Varuzhan Davtyan	TKO	3 (6)	5 Oct 2002	Huddersfield Sports Centre, Huddersfield, England
21	Win	17–3–1	Lee Swaby	PTS	10	27 Apr 2002	Huddersfield Sports Centre, Huddersfield, England
20	Win	16–3–1	Valeri Semiskur	PTS	6	23 Feb 2002	Harvey Hadden Sports Centre, Nottingham, England
19	Win	15–3–1	Luke Simpkin	RTD	3 (4), 3:00	10 Dec 2001	Everton Park Sports Centre, Liverpool, England
18	Loss	14–3–1	Firat Arslan	TKO	7 (8)	8 Oct 2001	Barnsley Metrodome, Barnsley, England
17	Loss	14–2–1	Sebastiaan Rothmann	RTD	9 (12), 3:00	24 Apr 2001	Olympia, Liverpool, England	For WBU cruiserweight title
16	Win	14–1–1	Billy Bessey	PTS	4	26 Feb 2001	Harvey Hadden Leisure Centre, Nottingham, England
15	Win	13–1–1	Mark Lee Dawson	TKO	1 (6)	25 Sep 2000	Barnsley Metrodome, Barnsley, England
14	Win	12–1–1	Paul Bonson	PTS	4	13 May 2000	Barnsley Metrodome, Barnsley, England
13	Win	11–1–1	Luke Simpkin	PTS	6	27 Mar 2000	Barnsley Metrodome, Barnsley, England
12	Win	10–1–1	Nikolai Ermenkov	TKO	3 (6)	11 Mar 2000	Olympia, London, England
11	Win	9–1–1	Brian Gascoigne	TKO	3 (6)	6 Dec 1999	Norfolk Gardens Hotel, Bradford, England
10	Win	8–1–1	Paul Bonson	PTS	4	11 Sept 1999	Hillsborough Leisure Centre, Sheffield, England
9	Loss	7–1–1	Mark Levy	PTS	8	19 Apr 1999	Stakis Hotel, Bradford, England
8	Win	7–0–1	Danny Southeram	TKO	5 (6)	26 Nov 1998	Stakis Hotel, Bradford, England
7	Win	6–0–1	Mark Snipe	TKO	3 (6)	25 Oct 1998	Tara Leisure Centre, Shaw and Crompton, England
6	Win	5–0–1	Martin Jolley	TKO	3 (6)	15 Jun 1998	Stakis Hotel, Bradford, England
5	Win	4–0–1	Paul Bonson	PTS	6	21 May 1998	Ball Park Centre, Bradford, England
4	Draw	3–0–1	Colin Brown	PTS	6	27 Feb 1998	Volunteer Rooms, Irvine, Scotland
3	Win	3–0	P.R. Mason	PTS	6	13 Nov 1997	Stakis Hotel, Bradford, England
2	Win	2–0	P.R. Mason	PTS	6	6 Oct 1997	Norfolk Gardens Hotel, Bradford, England
1	Win	1–0	Michael Pinnock	PTS	6	9 Jun 1997	Stakis Hotel, Bradford, England

References