Jacob "The Fighting Farrier" Pollard

The sort of bloke that embodies "have fist, will travel". The indefatigable 33 year old Yorkshireman has a professional boxing record consisting of a single win and, currently, one hundred losses. You read that correctly: 1-100. Just six of those losses came by stoppage.

The man has fought in excess of thrice for each year he's been alive. Before the year is out he'll be adding two more contests - one apiece in November and December. Non-zero chance he gets a W in his next outing (it would be his first in 51 bouts) as his opponent Dylan Nixon is 0-5, stopped 3x.

We used to see more of these Zack Page or Reggie Stricklandesque records in the sport, but increasingly less so. Most of the ones in recent memory have, for whatever reason, been concentrated in the UK - and many of the more well known ones have begun to retire. Kristian Laight, for instance, last fought in 2018. Good to see Pollard is carrying that dignified torch and going rounds with prospects for the likes of "Mr. Reliable".

Hard geezer that he is, The Fighting Farrier manages himself and advertises himself as available to promoters, on short notice or not, anywhere from bantam through featherweight. That's pretty baller IMO.

For those of you born in the current or 20th century, and not in a Brontë sister novel, a farrier is basically the guy that has to give horses pedicures and put their shoes on. So as his full-time gig Jake is squatted down risking equine kicks in the face on the regular - next to which eating gloved punches must seem like breathmints.

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Anyway, let's give thanks once again for Pollard and his ilk firming up the backbone of this industry by letting rookies cut teeth without crumbling inside a round. And let's wish him luck against Nixon next month!