By Terence Dooley
When former semi-pro footballer and trainee chef turned entrepreneur and boxing promoter Dennis Hobson takes his seat at the Ponds Forge Arena in his native Sheffield later tonight for the second show of his terrestrial deal with FreeSports he will hope to witness a second, big step in his aim to provide a regular free-to-air platform that offers keenly matched fights, a smattering of titles, and a chance for fighters to break through to the big leagues.
Barnsley’s Josh Wale defends his British bantamweight title for the second time against Lincolnshire’s Bobby Jenkinson in the main event, with Lou Nassa and Brad Watson vying for the vacant English Super flyweight belt in the chief support. Hobson is optimistic that the show will build on the good will and solid word of mouth from his first promotion on the channel, Sam Sheedy’s Commonwealth middleweight title defence against Liam Cameron in October—a seventh round win for Cameron that was well-received by fans.
“We’ve set our standard now after the Cameron and Sheedy fight,” said Hobson. “The two headline bouts are both very tight, and in terms of value for money, they are top draw. They should both be cracking contests and if they are even nearly as good as Sheedy versus Cameron, then they’ll be great entertainment.”
He added: “For this coming year, I want to do some Scottish shows with Iain Wilson, and in the Northeast with Phil Jeffries and Dave Garside, because they are putting some cracking shows on up there. And in London we’ll be working with ‘Mo’ Prior from Warrior Boxing. So, we’re hoping to go up and down the country in 2018 and put shows on, with the plan being a show a month. It’s all growing and developing as we speak, but for this first show of 2018 I’m working with Stefy Bull, and it should be an absolute belter and get the year off to a bang.”
Hobson made his way into boxing by managing the likes of Scott Lansdowne before hitting the big time with former IBF light-heavyweight titlist Clinton Woods and guiding Ricky Hatton’s career during a crucial period in which “The Hitman” was trying to break the American market.
Hatton moved on when he secured a fight against Floyd Mayweather as part of an initial one-fight deal with Golden Boy in December 2007. Hobson, though, fought his way back to the top by guiding both Jamie McDonnell and Stuart Hall to the IBF World bantamweight title in 2013 only to see both fighters join Eddie Hearn’s ever-growing Matchroom stable. The loss of their services sent Hobson into a bit of a funk as he grew disillusioned with the sport after failing to secure a regular TV deal.
“I took Jamie to the world title on a cold night in Doncaster after I’d dug deep into my pocket to get Julio Ceja over,” he said. “He became the first world champion from Doncaster that night. Then he does two eight rounders on Hearn shows after I’d taken him to a world title. The Board ruled that I get twenty-five percent of those fights and he walked away.
“I went away and pulled it out of the bag again with Stuart Hall by getting him a kid he could beat in Vusi Malinga [for the title previously held by McDonnell, who was stripped when contracts were not submitted on time for his mandatory defence against the African]. Then he went with another trainer and promoter after losing to Paul Butler and Randy Caballero [L12 for the belt Butler vacated after deciding to drop back down to Super-flyweight to challenge Zolani Tete for the IBF’s 114lbs title]. It had happened again. You do wonder why you do it in the end.”
Promoters who try to exist outside the bubble of Sky, BoxNation, ITV, and BT Sport struggle to keep on going. It is not just about money. In the age of social media fighters don’t just want to fight, they want to be seen to be fighting so a TV contract is crucial. Hobson has one now and wants to build on it.
“The fighters will grow with the channel,” he said when speaking to BoxingScene about the venture. “I was waiting for a spark like this. We don’t have Sky throwing silly money at us, we don’t have BoxNation, but what we do have is that we are in charge of our own destiny.
“If this free TV platform takes off—and I am optimistic despite it being a hard slog—then we will get kids opportunities. We won’t put anyone in the queue or leave then on the shelf. We will get kids regular slots and do things the conventional way, which is what Clinton [Woods] did by going British, Commonwealth, European and then world title. Hopefully we will get our first world title within a few years and it will be on a free TV channel.”
Seemingly out of the game after the McDonnell and Hall setbacks, Hobson ticked over with the occasional show only to rediscover his spark following the death of his father, Dennis Hobson Sr., last year following a battle against cancer. He was 82 and his dying request of being cryogenically frozen was granted so it meant that there was no official funeral.
“My dad used to come to the shows, he enjoyed telling people he was part of the promotion,” stated Hobson. “He was a great storyteller. We used to have some great nights where he’d hold court just before the fights and after them. It is strange not having him there. Because of his wishes, there wasn’t a funeral so we celebrated his life instead.”
A former scrap man, a profession Jr. also entered, the Sheffield-based local legend was a fixture at ringside for his son’s shows. Hobson Senior had often asked when they were going to have another crack at reaching the heights. Although he has not been able to see it, his death proved the catalyst when Hobson made the choice to get back into the mix.
“I’ve for two little girls and want to spend time with them, so moved back from the business a little big, but will still work in boxing until that fire goes out,” he said. “I’ll be honest, it was fluttering yet it never burnt out and now it is starting to rise a little bit again. As long as we all stick together there will be other chapters. We haven’t got an Anthony Joshua, we haven’t got any Olympians, but we have decent kids who can improve at the different levels we can get them to.”
“That is why I started again with a few local kids, tried to get them up there domestically and started getting my appetite back after my dad died,” he added. “I’ve got a bit of spark back now, so let’s see where it goes. I’m not interested in being the richest man in the graveyard, my passion is boxing and I want to achieve something in that. I want to write new chapters. I’ve thought long and hard about it over the last year or so. The hope is that I can help some kids get through when in the past they just got the door slammed in their face.
“You see a young kid, think he has a chance and want to try to get him up there. Then the juices start flowing and you think: ‘I will stop eventually, but I’ve got a couple of decent kids now that I want to get up there’. Then you end up hanging in there because you think someone has a chance and want to see how he gets on in the next fight, then the next one and the next one. It is like a bug.”
Boxing fans do not have it easy, paying hefty multiple subscriptions to follow a sport that is rife with politicking, mismatches, often shows scant regard for its followers, and that gets it wrong more often than it gets it right. Hobson wants his shows to be economically viable as well as entertaining; he also shares the general view that boxing has taken and taken for far too long, and that the current model is not sustainable in the long-term.
“I pay £120 in England for Sky and £120 in Jersey [where he spends the majority of his time], it is a lot of money,” he admitted. “That is why free boxing is good. There are plenty of pensioners and people on the breadline who have every penny spoken for, so it is nice if they can see some competitive sports—it is good for them. If the match-ups are decent, whatever the level, then it can provide great viewing. Hopefully we get the viewing figures and can grow it from that.
“People are on social media these days asking where they can stream stuff because they don’t want or can’t afford to pay for another pay-per-view or for Sky. Boxing has got a massive following, it is on everyone’s lips at the moment, so let’s make the most of this cult and wider following. There are a lot of references to it in culture, so let’s use it. We are crap at football internationally (in England), but we are punching above our weight when it comes to boxing.”
In particular, Hobson blasted the rise of "event" PPVs, arguing that the platform should be used to make genuinely big fights rather than following a domestic grudge match format. Anthony Joshua’s presence of the platform is understandable due to the financial demands involved in making his fights.
For Hobson, though, too many recent pay-per-view offerings have gone beyond the pale, alienating so-called hard-core fans and secreting fighters on undercards that are not given any real attention by those who only care about the main event.
“Some of these big events are farces, they are pantomimes and are meaningless,” he blasted. “They are creating pay-per-views just to cash in, fights that don’t mean anything in the wider world. I take my hat off to [David] Haye and [Tony] Bellew for creating that (rivalry)—they talked their way into making themselves financially secure—but, as a boxing purist, those fights are just cash ins.
“We are just creating events. I can understand that side of things yet I also understand that if the ingredients are right—a goodie versus a baddie or pantomime villain—then boxing can get it right. [Carl] Froch versus [George] Groves got it right after [referee Howard] Foster created a controversy. Groves went from villain to the hero, got the public behind him, got the rematch and created enough interest to get 80,000 into Wembley. The Americans look at that and wonder how we do it.
“Then you get [Floyd] Mayweather against [Conor] McGregor, which was just a farce. People were offering me even money bets, I told them I’d be pinching their money. The hype got the general public thinking McGregor had a chance. It was like saying a leading goal scorer in ice hockey could become Manchester United’s best goal scorer.
“It showed what can be created if you get the hype and the balance just right. You get two tribes meeting up and, on the positive side, it shows that nothing can create an audience like boxing can—we just need to do it properly.”
With that said, Hobson headed back to the phones that had started ringing again when news dropped of his new TV deal—“It is a bit like Dragons’s Den again now”—with the eternal optimism that is needed at the business end of a cruel game.
Coda:
Although he has enjoyed successful stints with the likes of Hatton and guided McDonnell and Hall to world titles, Hobson wants to recapture the lightening in a bottle that he seized when taking the unfancied and unfashionable Clinton Woods to the light-heavyweight world title. Of all his times in boxing, this represents the high-water mark. Hatton may have taken him to Vegas but Woods gave him the world.
Hobson’s defining memory is the night when Woods overcame his underdog status to hand fancied American Rico Hoye his first defeat in five rounds at Rotherham’s Magna Centre in 2005. The contest was shown live on BBC and they thought it was going to be the start of a terrestrial TV journey.
However, the Beeb had been stung by the unfolding farce of Audley Harrison’s career and the win over Hoye was Woods’s last fight on the channel despite him winning the world title in his fourth attempt: a loss to Roy Jones Jr. (L TKO 6) had been followed by a draw and decision defeat to Glen Johnson in previous title tilts.
Defences over Julio Cesar Gonzalez (W12 in May 2006 and then September 2007, his final successful defence before losing his belt by decision to Antonio Tarver in April 2008), Jason DeLisle (W TKO 6) and Glen Johnson (W SD 12, beating the “Road Warrior” at the third time of asking), underlined the fact that Woods, who Hobson had compared to Henry Cooper due to his humility, was there on merit during his title reign.
“I had a few amateur fights, and was always a fan, so to go on the big stage was always a dream,” recalled Hobson. “I broke through with Clinton Woods and that journey we had speaks for itself. We had a few ups and downs, but I wanted to prove that it wasn’t a fluke, and thankfully I did that by getting other kids up to titles.
“People asked why Clinton went under the radar compared to others, it is because he wasn’t outspoken, he didn’t go on meet and greets to tell stories—he was a homeboy. I used to ask him to go to different functions, but he’d prefer to be at home with his family. Clinton wasn’t an easy sell, we went against the tide and in the end it was like Wimbledon winning the FA Cup.
“Some fellas go through their career managing or promoting without getting a world champion, I’ve been lucky because I’ve had a few. Like that golf pro said: ‘The harder I practice the luckier I get’. I’ve had plenty of knockbacks yet I suppose I have a bit of tenacity and keep plugging away.
“When Clinton had his hands waved the adrenaline rush is what I imagine a drug rush must feel like. Clinton’s is a story on its own. He stayed loyal to me and I stayed loyal to him, despite people trying to get into his ear. Money comes and goes, memories are there for ever. Getting a few quid is a bonus, the achievement is the dream—I’m in it for the dream and not the bonus.”
Watch Josh Wale v Bobby Jenkinson exclusively live in the UK on FreeSports on Sky Ch. 424, Freeview Ch. 95, Freesat Ch. 252, TalkTalk Ch. 95 and BT Ch. 95. Go to www.freesports.tv for further information.
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