Landing a knock-out blow is what it’s all about in boxing.
So, on that front, Jobes Boxing have done that with their Titles on the Tyne event on Saturday, April 18.
Little beats a fight night in Newcastle – you just have to look back two months for the evening Josh Kelly became the IBF light-middleweight champion of the world and Josh Blenkiron lifted the Northern Area title with a derby success over Robbie Colman.
Now, just around the corner from the Utilita Arena, Jobes Boxing are serving up a treat on April 18 at the Vertu Eagles Arena, with not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE title contests.
The Geordie boxing outfit, spearheaded by Matty Jobes, are delivering later this month as Danny Harper announced the stacked show.
A Northern Area championship re-match between two true North-East warriors, Matt McCallum and Adam Hepple, headlines the promotion.
The return bout from 2023 (above) would be worth the admission money alone, but throw in, in alphabetical order, Joe Miller, Cyrus Pattinson,Hannah Robinson and Lee Rogers, and it looks nothing short of amazing.
That’s a wonderful array of talent, who all contest a variety of belts sanctioned by the Commonwealth Boxing Council in eight-rounders.
Miller will face Nigeria’s Sodiq Oyakojo for the Commonwealth International super-featherweight title. The Seaham 21-year-old has come back nicely from a first career defeat at the hands of Jose Manuel Perez last summer.
‘Masher’ (5-1) returned with a points success over Mark Butler last September and after a proposed Northern Area title derby against Eduard Georgiev fell through he now has this challenge in front of him.
Oyakojo is a former Nigerian super-featherweight champion and has a fine 10-6-2 fight log, with six of his wins coming early.
Pattinson, always a boxer worth watching, has African opposition in Alex Kachelewa for the Commonwealth International welterweight belt.
The Alnwick southpaw, like Miller, has had to recover from a set-back, but since a shock and painful defeat to Conah Walker in August 2023, he has reeled off three wins, two on the telly on Channel 5 broadcasts.
Those three victories have stretched the 31-year-old’s record to 9-1 and he’ll have the perfect 10 in his sights against Kachelewa. The 25-year-old Tanzanian who has won four stoppages successes on the spin and has been beaten only once in 17 contests.
Robinson is the exception of the quartet in that she will be boxing over 10 two-minute rounds when she meets Charlie Sutton for the Commonwealth Silver crown.
The unbeaten 31-year-old, from Bishop Auckland, has clocked up five wins as a professional, as has her rival from Bristol, who has been beaten once.
Robinson, trained in Darlington by Pete Shepperson, was a top quality amateur, winning the Senior England title (ABAs in ‘old money’), the GB Championship and Tri Nations in these islands and representing GB Boxing on the international stage.
North-East talent does not come more dazzling than Rogers, who has chalked up a magnificent seven straight Ws as a pro, two of his last four triumphs coming inside the distance.
The Jobes Boxing star, like Pattinson, will be up against a boxer from Tanzania. Deric Godfrey, a 21-year-old with a 5-1 record, boxed an eight-rounder in Dar-Es-Salaam last time out.
Rogers, a former Birtley ABC star like Pattinson and Robinson, looks a cut above the men he has been matched with to date so getting on the title ladder looks just what the ‘Pocket Rocket’ needs.
While England face Africa in three of those bouts, the main event at the Eagles Arena features very local fare at the top of the bill.
And what a showdown between two thirty-something warriors for the vacant Northern Area light-heavyweight championship.
It is fascinating with a capital F.
McCallum is chasing his third Northern Area title, having first won the super-middleweight belt before beating Billy Wade in late 2024 to clinch the middleweight crown. The 35-year-old, from Morpeth, has an 8-5 record and is not shy about big fights.
The same goes for Hepple, who is aiming to emulate his rival in becoming a two-weight Area champ. The Seaham 33-year-old last time took the excellent Zak Chelli into the tenth round of their English light-heavyweight championship contest in London last summer.
Hepple is already 1-0 up on McCallum, having stopped Matt in two rounds to take the Northumberland southpaw’s super-middleweight crown at Rainton Arena in the summer of 2023.
This has belter written all over it.
Words: Roy Kelly Picture: Tom Collins
