Mark Hobson (boxer)

Mark Hobson (born 5 July 1976) is a British former professional boxer fighting out of Huddersfield in England. He competed in the cruiserweight division and is a former British & Commonwealth cruiserweight champion and former world title challenger.

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 not able to match the performance of his first fight with the Welshman and so suffering a stoppage defeat in only the first round.^[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

27 Wins (14 knockouts, 13 decisions), 5 Losses (3 knockouts, 2 decisions), 1 Draw
Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round	Date	Location	Notes
Win	26–15	John "Buster" Keeton	TKO	4	29 September 2007	Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom	BBBofC British Cruiserweight Title. Referee stopped the bout at 1:00 of the fourth round.
Loss	24–1	Enzo Maccarinelli	TKO	1	14 October 2006	Manchester, United Kingdom	WBO World Cruiserweight Title. Referee stopped the bout at 1:11 of the first round.
Win	11–1	Pavol Polakovic	UD	12	8 September 2006	Mayfair, London, United Kingdom	WBU World Cruiserweight Title. 120–109, 120–109, 117–112.
Win	25–13	John "Buster" Keeton	TKO	4	1 June 2006	Barnsley, Yorkshire, United Kingdom	BBBofC British/Commonwealth Cruiserweight Title. Referee stopped the bout at 2:50 of the fourth round.
Loss	22–1	Enzo Maccarinelli	UD	12	4 March 2006	Manchester, United Kingdom	WBU World Cruiserweight Title. 112–116, 113–114, 113–114.
Win	26–7	Bruce "Lionheart" Scott	PTS	12	17 December 2004	Huddersfield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom	BBBofC British/Commonwealth Cruiserweight Title. 118–112.
Win	19–13–2	Lee Swaby	TKO	6	27 May 2004	Huddersfield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom	BBBofC British/Commonwealth Cruiserweight Title. Referee stopped the bout at 1:02 of the sixth round.
Win	11–2	Tony "Dare to Dream" Moran	TKO	3	13 March 2004	Huddersfield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom	BBBofC British/Commonwealth Cruiserweight Title. Referee stopped the bout at 2:10 of the third round.
Win	23–2–1	Rob Norton	PTS	12	5 September 2003	Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom	BBBofC British/Commonwealth Cruiserweight Title. 118–110.
Win	25–7–1	Muslim Biarslanov	TKO	2	10 May 2003	Huddersfield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom	Referee stopped the bout at 1:20 of the second round.
Win	13–2–2	Abdul Kadou	TKO	4	25 January 2003	Bridgend, Wales, United Kingdom	Commonwealth Cruiserweight Title.
Win	3–2	Varuzhan Davtyan	TKO	3	5 October 2002	Huddersfield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Win	13–12–2	Lee Swaby	PTS	10	27 April 2002	Huddersfield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom	BBBofC British Cruiserweight Title Eliminator. 96–94.
Win	11–6–1	Valeri Semiskur	PTS	6	23 February 2002	Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom	60–54.
Win	4–14–1	Luke Simpkin	RTD	3	10 December 2001	Liverpool, United Kingdom	Simpkin retired at 3:00 of the third round.
Loss	13–2	Firat Arslan	TKO	7	8 October 2001	Barnsley, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Loss	12–1–2	Sebastiaan Rothmann	RTD	9	24 April 2001	Liverpool, United Kingdom	WBU World Cruiserweight Title. Hobson retired at 3:00 of the ninth round.
Win	1–0	Billy Bessey	PTS	4	26 February 2001	Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom
Win	14–47	Mark Lee Dawson	TKO	1	25 September 2000	Barnsley, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Win	7–25–5	Paul Bonson	PTS	4	13 May 2000	Barnsley, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Win	3–5	Luke Simpkin	PTS	6	27 March 2000	Barnsley, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Win	5–0	Nikolai Ermenkov	TKO	3	11 March 2000	Kensington, London, United Kingdom
Win	1–0–2	Brian Gascoigne	TKO	3	6 December 1999	Bradford, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Win	5–17–5	Paul Bonson	PTS	4	11 September 1999	Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Loss	2–0	Mark "Chevy" Levy	PTS	8	19 April 1999	Bradford, Yorkshire, United Kingdom	76–78.
Win	3–2–1	Danny Southeram	TKO	5	26 November 1998	Bradford, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Win	5–2–1	Mark Snipe	TKO	3	25 October 1998	Shaw, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Win	12–45–4	Martin Jolley	TKO	3	15 June 1998	Bradford, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Win	4–7–4	Paul Bonson	PTS	6	21 May 1998	Bradford, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Draw	6–2	Colin Brown	PTS	6	27 February 1998	Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland, United Kingdom
Win	7–4–2	P.R. Mason	PTS	6	13 November 1997	Bradford, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Win	6–3–2	P.R. Mason	PTS	6	6 October 1997	Bradford, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Win	2–19–3	Michael Pinnock	PTS	6	9 June 1997	Bradford, Yorkshire, United Kingdom

References