Tommy Frank lost his unbeaten record as he was pulled out by his corner after the eighth round against Rosendo Hugo Guarneros having battled for five rounds using just one hand after injuring his left shoulder.

Frank suffered the injury in the third round of the 12-round flyweight fight but battle bravely for five rounds before his corner took the wise decision to say enough was enough.

It was a tough end to Dennis Hobson’s drive-in show in the car park of Sheffield Arena, but the promoter said that Frank, who was in tears at the end, had proved himself in the fight.

“I promise you he will win something big,” Hobson said. “He doesn’t realise what he has proved to me. You have seen it before with me with Clinton Woods, Stuart Hall and Jamie McDonnell who came to me after a loss. That is a loss, but it is a learner not a loss.”

The Mexican started well and put Frank under pressure, landing with the right, but sometimes missing wildly. Frank kept his composure, though, counter-punching and keeping Guarneros off with the jab.

Frank started to box with a bit more authority in the second, as he got on the front foot and began pushing Guarneros back. 

Midway through the third, though, it became apparent that Frank was boxing exclusively with his right hand. At the end of the round, his corner worked on his shoulder, but Guarneros was inspired to raise his workrate as he tried to crowd Frank, who was struggling to raise his left hand even in defence.

Somehow, Guarneros was still getting caught cleanly and regularly by the fight, one of which, in the fifth seemed to rock the Mexican on his heels. In the main, though, Frank was backing away, scoring with the right and then moving away.

He had another good round in the sixth, but it was a tough job to keep the Mexican off, as Guarneros kept the pressure on and Frank began to tire. At the end of the eighth. Mark Lyson, the referee, accepted the retirement from the Frank corner.

The show was a success, though, with a big crowd, all staying in their cars, attending. Instead of cheering the crowd would sound their approval by hitting their car horns and Hobson was delighted to have finally got to put on a show after the pandemic.

“I got the same buzz when I had Ricky Hatton in Vegas putting this together,” Hobson said. ”No one else had ever done it and we have made a big statement tonight of out intentions for next year. We’ll keep it under wraps, but in the next couple of months we are going on a big journey.”

Kane Salvin claimed the Central Area super-featherweight title as he was a 97-94 winner over Sufyaan Ahmed on referee Darren Sarginson’s card.

It was a clash of 5-0 novices, although local Sheffield bragging rights were up for grab as well as the title in the ten-rounder. Salvin set a vicious pace from the opening bell but paid for it in the later rounds when he tried badly.

Still, it gave him a gandy lead early on as it was not until the mid-rounds that Ahmed started to find his rhythm.

The better shots in the second half of the fight came from Ahmed, although the action was always close and competitive.

Kash Ali, best remembered for being disqualified for biting David Price, had a routine win over Phil Williams, who was pulled out at the midway point of their heavyweight six-rounder

Ali boxed well for the first two rounds but put some heavy pressure on Williams in the third round and it was no great surprise that Williams’s corner pulled him out at the end of the round. Jamie Kirkpatrick was the referee.

Gabriella Mezei, from Romania, was a deserved winner over Cathy McAleer in a bantamweight four-twos, winning 39-37 on referee Jamie Kirkpatrick’s card.

A right hook rocked McAleer in the first and while the Romanian gave the second away by barely throwing a punch, she got back on track in the third and dominated the fourth, catching the Norther Irish boxer coming forward and landing all the cleaner punches.

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for Boxing Scene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.