Boxer suffers 100th career defeat as journeyman’s streak goes on | Boxing | Sport
Jake Pollard endured his 100th professional boxing defeat after suffering a second-round technical knockout on the undercard of Joseph Parker vs Fabio Wardley. Hassan Ishaq extended his perfect start to his career, improving to 3-0 with his victory over the veteran journeyman at the O2 Arena.
The 33-year-old, who works as a farrier – a blacksmith specialising in horseshoes – is currently enduring a 51-bout losing streak, with his sole triumph occurring in July 2023 against Louis Smithson. Pollard has accumulated four losses in October alone, with his most recent coming on the sport’s biggest stage.
Pollard was floored in the second round when Ishaq connected with an uppercut that penetrated his defence. The Yorkshire-based fighter collapsed to his knees as referee Mark Bates assessed his condition before halting the contest.
The journeyman has already competed 17 times this calendar year, with three more bouts pencilled in for the coming weeks, though these remain provisional. Pollard’s boxing journey is quite remarkable, with his solitary victory occurring during a 49-fight winless run before embarking on his current sequence of 51 consecutive defeats.
Reflecting on his triumph over debutant Smithson two years ago, the then-31-year-old remarked: “It wasn’t much different for me, it was another day at the office.”
“Don’t get me wrong, it was nice to tell my son that I had won for a change, But there has been plenty of other fights that people have thought I’d won, or at least drawn, and I haven’t even been given a round.
“Still, I enjoyed the fight and we both left the ring without any serious injuries, that’s the main thing for me. There is a saying for us journeyman, you have to knock them out to get a draw.
“Everybody who saw the result has asked me why I had a delayed reaction to the win and it’s because I’ve had fights go very similar ways in the past and it hasn’t even been close on the scorecards. Thankfully, we had a very fair referee on Saturday, who gave a fair decision.”
