Meet Ben 'The Bomber' Bonner: Teesside's bare-knuckle boxing world champion
Bare-knuckle boxing isn't for the faint-hearted. But it's where Grove Hill-raised Ben Bonner has, in just three years, fought his way to a world title.
A 12,000 crowd at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, saw 'The Bomber' clinch the BKFC 70kg World Lightweight title with a thrilling unanimous decision victory over Tony 'Loco' Soto. Despite taking on the fight with just eight days' notice, the Boro fighter managed knockdowns in the first and second rounds, paving the way to a hard-fought points victory.
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And when he returned to see mam Danielle in Grove Hill after the fight, the community he grew up in turned out in force to welcome him home. It's been a remarkable rise to the top for Ben, 34, who for the past four years has lived in London, where he works as a drug counsellor.
Growing up in Grove Hill, he attended St Joseph's Primary and Newlands School before taking a two-year sports science course at college in Hammersmith, London, where his dad Carl was living. Returning to Teesside, he played football at a decent standard for various local sides and, in his 20s, resumed the conventional boxing he'd first tried as a youngster at the Halfpenny pub in Grove Hill.
Intrigued by the arrival in the UK of US-based BKFC (Bare Knuckle Fight Championship) three years ago, Ben got in touch – and he's never looked back.
He said: 'I'd seen it on TV and it quite intrigued me and I did think to myself 'I'd like to give it a try'. I messaged a guy in America about joining and he put me on to a promoter in the UK who offered me a fight in London.
'I'll be honest, when I was in the changing room before that first fight, a guy on the fight before me walked back in with his nose on the other side of his face, his ears hanging off and his eyes not looking great. I remember thinking 'I'm not sure I signed up for this'. But I went out there and broke six of the guy's ribs and they gave me a five-fight deal after that.'
But that world title fight, says Ben, came out of the blue.
'I was on my way to work three weeks ago and the BKFC rang me to say there was a world title fight in eight days' time but one of the fighters had pulled out, so would I be able to take it? I go to the gym every day to keep fit, so I jumped at the chance. I answered the call on Friday and I was on a plane to Texas on Sunday.'
A fight generally comprises five two-minute rounds – 'it doesn't sound a lot but it's a long 10 minutes when you're in there,' said Ben. But he insists bare-knuckle boxing isn't as brutal as it looks.
He told Teesside Live: 'To see it on TV, I guess it looks more brutal than conventional boxing because of the amount of blood you're more likely to see and the superficial cuts and what not. But if you look at the data, it's safer than conventional boxing because there's less trauma to the head.'
He's happy to embrace the razzmatazz, telling the crowd at his world title bout: 'I'm the baddest man at 155 (lbs) on this planet and there's nobody on this planet that's going to beat me. Not a single man.'
And Ben, whose girlfriend Soraya is a dog groomer, says his world title success was 'the single greatest moment of my life.'
He said: 'I'd had four fights in the BKFC prior to the world title. I had one at Newcastle Arena last November that went viral because Conor McGregor was there and he toasted me with Irish stout after I'd knocked the guy out. But preparing for the title fight was the best week of my life – and it culminated in the best night of my life by quite some stretch.'
His next bout is unlikely to be until the end of the year when, thanks to clinching his lightweight title, he's lined up for a four-man 'champions' tournament in the US, where the winner gets £50m. Ben laughed: 'It's crazy, considering four years ago I was boxing for £200 in social clubs.'
Next week, he's flying to Miami for a BKFC press conference. And he admits, the time may have come to be a full-time fighter.
He said: 'I love my job but to live as a professional athlete is something I've always dreamed of. If I went for it, hopefully I could make myself financially secure for the rest of my life off the next couple of years.'
But at heart, says Ben, 34, he'll always be a proud Boro lad. He said: 'I've been back in Middlesbrough since the fight and it was very surreal, with people knocking at my mam's door for photos and people stopping me in the street – it's been wild.
'There's not a lot of money around in Grove Hill and it probably has one of the highest crime areas of the country. I'm aware that some of the lifestyles aren't great but it's nice to know that people – and they are good people – can see what I've done and hopefully want to emulate that.
'Being some sort of hero to young kids from Teesside means the world to me. I'm aware Grove Hill's one of those places where, in the nicest possible way, people can get stuck, thinking they're probably never going to be able to leave or work their way to a better future.
'I just hope they'll look at me and understand that with hard work, it's always a possibility.'
Pictures: thefuseuk and BigBoysBrawlHQ
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