Branko Šobot (born 12 January 1972 in Zagreb, Croatia) is a Croatian former professional boxer, who held the IBF Inter-Continental middleweight and super middleweight titles and challenged for the WBO World Super middleweight title, losing against Joe Calzaghe by 3rd-round TKO.
Amateur Šobot became Croatian amateur champion in 1994 defeating Stjepan Božić by split decision.
Pro Šobot's debut came on January 7, 1995, with a knockout of Bosnian, Savo Janković. On 1 March 1996, Šobot fought and defeated Orhan Ajvazoski for the German International middleweight title in Frankfurt and went on to make two more successful defences in the city and later two more in Offenbach and Oberhausen. After nine wins, Šobot successfully fought for the IBF Inter-Continental middleweight title, defeating experienced title holder Salvador Yanez.
Šobot's next major challenge came on January 25, 1997, when he faced future world champion Hacine Cherifi for the EBU (European) middleweight title. After a 12-round fight, the Frenchman defeated Šobot on points, Šobots only defeat after 11 wins.
On the January 24, 1998, Šobot made his first and only World title challenge. Moving up to Super Middleweight, he faced Joe Calzaghe who was making his first defence since winning the WBO World super middleweight title off Chris Eubank. Šobot was brought in as a late replacement for American Tarick Salmaci. Despite beating the count after getting knocked down in the third round, the Croatian came under renewed punishment, with the Welshman landing blows from all angles, prompting the referee to stop the fight, making it Šobot's first TKO loss.
In November 1999, after two recovery wins back in Germany, Šobot faced unbeaten Mario Veit for the vacant German International super middleweight title, losing the ten round contest by unanimous decision.
His next fight was more successful, as he won the IBF Inter-Continental super middleweight title in his home country with a sixth round stoppage over Francis Fofoh. This took his career record up to 17-3-0 at the turn of the millennium, although the rest of his career would be less victory filled. In his next nine fights he would win just twice, facing tough competition against the likes of Danilo Haussler, Arthur Abraham, Mger Mkrtchyan and Konni Konrad.
On the 16 December 2004, Šobot fought his last bout, losing to undefeated and future WBO World super middleweight champion Denis Inkin by second-round TKO.
Professional boxing record
ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes30Loss19–11Denis InkinTKO2 (8)16 Dec 200429Loss19–10Lansana DialloUD84 Dec 200428Win19–9Admir KurtićKO2 (6)7 Nov 200427Loss18–9Konni KonradMD816 Oct 200426Loss18–8Roman AramyanPTS625 Sep 200425Loss18–7Mger MkrtchyanTKO2 (8), 24 Jul 200424Loss18–6Arthur AbrahamTKO2 (8), 27 Mar 200423Win18–5Orhan AjvazoskiUD629 Sep 200122Loss17–5Danilo HäusslerUD86 May 200021Loss17–4Norbert NierobaPTS825 Sep 199920Win17–3Francis FofohTKO6 (12)10 Jul 199919Loss16–3Mario VeitUD1014 Nov 199818Win16–2Rob BleakleyUD822 Aug 199817Win15–2Terry FordPTS85 Jun 199816Loss14–2Joe CalzagheTKO3 (12), 24 Jan 199815Win14–1Bahre AhmetiUD106 Dec 199714Win13–1Anthony IvoryPTS823 Aug 199713Win12–1Bagrat MakhkamovTKO6 (10)13 Jun 199712Loss11–1Hacine CherifiUD1225 Jan 199711Win11–0Milko StoikovTKO3 (8)21 Dec 199610Win10–0Salvador YáñezTKO10 (12)19 Oct 19969Win9–0Stefan MagyarTKO2 (8)17 Aug 19968Win8–0Orhan AjvazoskiPTS106 Jul 19967Win7–0Horace FlearyUD104 May 19966Win6–0Orhan AjvazoskiPTS101 Mar 19965Win5–0Milan MasnýKO3 (8), 8 Sep 19954Win4–0Ibrahim AlpasalnTKO5 (6)8 Jul 19953Win3–0Isidore JanvierTKO4 (4)6 May 19952Win2–0Jan HeinemannUD411 Feb 19951Win1–0Savo JankovićKO1 (4)7 Jan 1995
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