Pat Brown Claims Cruiserweight Titles with Body Shot Tribute to Hatton
On a raw Manchester night, Pat Brown didn’t just win titles. He settled a score with history.
The 26-year-old Olympian folded John Hedges in half with a savage body shot in the sixth round at Co-op Live, claiming the vacant British and Commonwealth cruiserweight crowns and adding another emphatic stoppage to a perfect record that now reads seven fights, seven inside the distance.
He did it with Ricky Hatton on his mind.
“I finished him with a body shot in memory of him,” Brown said, dedicating the finish to the British boxing icon who died a year and five days before the fight. It was the kind of punch Hatton himself would have admired – and thrown.
Brown solves the puzzle
This was no routine hometown coronation. Hedges came in unbeaten in 12, a 6ft 6in southpaw with long arms, quick feet and a clear gameplan: spoil, smother, survive.
For three rounds, it worked.
The Harlow fighter made himself awkward and elusive, giving Brown little to hit and grabbing on whenever the Mancunian bulldozed his way inside. Brown, backed by a loud travelling contingent from Sale chanting his name from the opening bell, grew visibly irritated. He began to lean on Hedges with his head, forcing him back over the top rope and drawing the attention of referee Reece Carter.
The fight threatened to turn scrappy. Then Brown adjusted.
In the fifth, something changed. He stopped loading up on single haymakers and started boxing. The jab finally came alive, snapping Hedges’ head back and pinning him in place. A right uppercut burst through the guard and landed clean under the chin – the first real sign that Brown had solved the southpaw puzzle.
He didn’t rush. He didn’t chase. He waited.
The body breaks Hedges
After five rounds of going upstairs, Brown suddenly dipped downstairs in the sixth. The pressure that had been building finally detonated.
A thudding hook to the ribs folded Hedges onto one knee. He beat the count, but his face told the story. The damage was done.
Moments later, Brown went back to the same target. Another body shot crashed in, Hedges dropped again, and this time he stayed down, unable to beat the referee’s count. The unbeaten record was gone. So was his chance at the British and Commonwealth belts.
For Brown, it was more than silverware. The Lonsdale Belt now sits alongside his WBA International and IBF Intercontinental titles, a serious haul for a man only seven fights into his professional career. The performance also underlined what he insisted all along: he can box as well as bang.
“I can't just go bulldozing in with him, people think you can't box,” he told DAZN afterwards. “With John, you're not going to get him out of there straight away because he'll just make you miss and make you look silly. That's why it was a patient performance.”
The patience paid off. So did the body work. On a night drenched in emotion, Brown left with belts, momentum and a finish that felt like a personal homage to the man who shaped so much of British boxing’s recent past.
Both men had ties to Hatton. Brown shared a gym with the former world welterweight champion, while Hatton had also trained Hedges and guided him to the English title. Those connections only sharpened the edge of a fight that already meant plenty.
Masoud dominates, Jeffers and O’Regan move on
The undercard quietly delivered its own statements.
Shabaz Masoud boxed with authority to shut out Ckari Mansilla, winning 100-90 on all three cards and walking away with the WBA International and IBF Intercontinental featherweight titles. Ten rounds, no drama on the scorecards, just a clean sweep.
In a British super-middleweight eliminator, Mark Jeffers outpointed Kieron Conway to move a step closer to a domestic title shot, while Cory O'Regan claimed the English lightweight crown at Joe Howarth’s expense.
While Brown was announcing himself as a force at cruiserweight in Manchester, another statement came thousands of miles away in San Diego.
Cruz flattens Bravo, calls out Garcia
Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz retained his WBC interim super-lightweight title in ruthless fashion, then wasted no time aiming his teeth at Ryan Garcia.
“Hey, Ryan, I'm here,” Cruz said in the ring after knocking out Nestor Bravo at Pechanga Arena. “My next fight for you. Come on, Ryan.”
Garcia, who stopped Conor Benn inside two rounds in Las Vegas last Saturday to keep hold of his WBC welterweight title, had already spoken about a quick return, eyeing December or January and naming Cruz as one of the possible opponents. He has also been linked with Teofimo Lopez, the world titleholder at welterweight, while Cruz currently operates a division below. The weight – and politics – may complicate things.
The callout didn’t go unanswered. Garcia responded after the fight: “Pitbull proved me wrong tonight. Let's do this in December, the offer is on the table. I can tame a lion, I'm not too concerned about taming a pitbull.”
First, Cruz had to deal with Bravo. He did, but not without controversy.
Cruz started fast, catching the Puerto Rican with a hook in the opening round as Bravo tried to clinch. The referee, Thomas Taylor, soon became a central figure. He docked Bravo a point in the second for holding, warned both fighters in the third after a series of low blows, then took another point from Bravo in the fourth for dumping Cruz to the canvas, bluntly warning that a disqualification would leave the challenger unpaid.
The tension didn’t last much longer. In the sixth, Cruz stepped in and detonated a lead left hook that landed flush. Bravo hit the deck and, with that, suffered just the second defeat of his career. Cruz moved to 29-3-2 and tightened his grip on the interim belt.
On the undercard, Daniel Blancas, Marco Verde and Eumir Marcial all won inside the distance, adding their own exclamation marks to a night built on stoppages.
In Manchester and San Diego, body shots and left hooks told the stories. The next punch that matters might be the one that lands if Ryan Garcia and Isaac Cruz finally share a ring.
