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Jake Pollard suffered his 100th defeat in professional boxing following a second-round technical knockout on the undercard of Joseph Parker vs Fabio Wardley. Hassan Isaq continued his early career in the sport, moving 3-0 with his triumph over the journeyman at the O2 Arena. The 33-year-old, who is a farrier by trade - a blacksmith who fits horses with shoes, is currently on a 51-fight losing streak, with his last, and only, win coming in July 2023 against Louis Smithson. Pollard has four defeats alone in October with his latest coming in the highest-profile card. Pollard was downed in the second round after Ishaq landed an uppercut that slipped through the guard. The boxer, fighting out of Yorkshire, was slumped on his knees as the referee, Mark Bates, checked over him before waving off the fight. The journeyman has already had 17 fights in this calendar year, with three scheduled in the near future, subject to change. Pollard's route in boxing in quite incredible with his only win coming during a 49-fight losing streak and he now finds himself on a run of 51 bouts without a victory. Speaking after his win over Smithson, who was fighting on debut, two years ago, the then-31-year-old said: "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." He added: "I enjoy fighting, no matter what the result. "There’s a certain feeling that’s better than winning for us journeyman and that’s when you’re in the ring with a top prospect, who’d done a camp, has sponsors, nutritionists and everything you can wish for, and they really try their best to get you out of there, yet at the final bell you are still stood, having taken the very best that they can offer. "That feeling is amazing, better than a win. To us journeymen, the decision from the referee or the judges doesn’t matter. If we enjoy the fight and do well then we are happy, we don’t expect to get the decision.” “We can’t get our hopes up for the win, if we did we would become very disheartened and probably wouldn’t continue. "Although, I always go out to try and put on a good account of myself. Sometimes, if in the first round I feel the opponent has a lot of power, I have to try and survive rather than be competitive, but that’s usually decided in the opening round, before the fight I’m always looking to try and be competitive.”
