Despite the assumption that they are easy, professional debuts are not always simple things to navigate for newcomers. On a basic level, if they win, they were supposed to, while if they lose, it’s an unmitigated disaster. Not just that, win and they get zero credit for doing so. After all, the fight, by design, is a mismatch and the only thing that really matters is getting to that next step: 1-0.

Last night in Altrincham, 2024 Olympian Pat Brown did just that. By stopping Federico Grandone in four rounds, he made it to 1-0, and he got there with maximum exposure and minimal fuss. Better yet, there was an urgency to Brown’s performance which can only excite his fans, as well as a feeling that he was not content to go home unless he had actually impressed in fight one. That, in the end, is all any fighter can do on their debut. However, not every fighter is as determined to impress as Brown, a 25-year-old cruiserweight, was last night at Planet Ice. 

Brown’s debut was different than most if only because his scheduled six-rounder with Grandone was headlining an event as opposed to being hidden away somewhere down the undercard. This, of course, brought its own pressures. For one, it magnified the fight, meaning Brown now really couldn’t lose. It also meant it had to be more of a “fight” than your usual pro debut for the simple reason that the fans in attendance – Brown’s fans – would rather not see a meaningless blowout in their main event. 

As it turned out, in Grandone, they picked an ideal opponent. Tough enough to take Brown rounds, he was also just the right amount of overwhelmed to guarantee the fans would go home seeing Brown finish his first fight the way he would have wanted to finish it: by stoppage. The finish itself was rather impressive, too, and saw Brown go through his entire repertoire of punches, including some meaty body shots, to essentially beat the fight out of Grandone and force the referee, Darren Sarginson, to halt proceedings. 

At that point, when trying to assess the overall night’s work, you look as much at everything around the fight as you do the fight itself. In Brown’s case, you listen out for the sound of the crowd, which was considerable, and you start to appreciate why he was headlining and why, in the future, he could become the Manchester ticket-seller British boxing has been crying out for since the years of Ricky “Hitman” Hatton. 

“Matchroom want to bring back the days of us having a load of Manchester fighters on the same bill,” Brown’s trainer, Jamie Moore, told me earlier in the week. “They see Pat Brown as the person to do that – the new Ricky Hatton in that sense – and we know Manchester will get behind him. Then, when others see the impact Pat is having, and we start getting some big shows up here, that will have a ripple effect and more and more fighters will start coming through.”

There was certainly evidence of the roots of this idea sprouting in Altrincham last night. In fact, there was a sense that Brown knew this was not only a showcase for his own talents and career but also a showcase for other Manchester fighters and a rehearsal for bigger shows in the future. For this reason, he didn’t just beat Grandone. He put on a performance. 

Waiting for the first bell, the crowd chanted Brown’s name, which in itself is unusual for a debutant. He then set about Grandone behind a high-held guard, as menacing in the ring as he was magnetic walking to it, and seconds into the fight shook out both his arms, a release of whatever tension he may have carried. 

Following that, it was mostly jabs to start. They were heavy, hurtful ones, and it took only a few to have Grandone panic, lose his form, and start swinging back. When he did, Brown then introduced his left hook, a shot even heavier than his jab, and Grandone now knew not to encroach without permission. Two more left hooks, both thrown to the body, caused the Argentine to suck up air and the noise of the crowd grew louder as a result. 

Still, in fairness to him, Grandone took some shifting. A Brown right hand in round two, for instance, would have knocked out most cruiserweights, yet Grandone hardly blinked when it landed clean. He coped well with Brown’s relentless pressure, too, and was always doing just enough – either moving or punching of his own – to keep the debutant alert and keep the referee at arm’s length. “He was a game bugger, him,” said Brown afterwards. “He was tough. He was in shape, he came to win, and credit to him. Fair play.”

That is the best you can hope for when it comes to matchmaking for an Olympian’s pro debut. With the win paramount, you look for certain weaknesses and limitations in an opponent, but you also require them possessing enough durability and threat to make the whole thing worth everybody’s time. 

In 2001, for example, I watched Audley Harrison, the 2000 Olympic gold medallist, turn professional at Wembley Arena against a Miami bouncer named Mike Middleton – like Grandone, a short-notice replacement – and got the complete opposite of what Brown and his team achieved last night. Inside Wembley Arena was a healthy crowd, all there to support Harrison and chant his name, yet the fight itself was never at any stage a fight. Instead, it was a mismatch of the worst kind. It began as a mismatch on paper, it appeared a mismatch with them both in the ring, and it then became a mismatch when Harrison wobbled Middleton with the first southpaw cross thrown and duly finished the fight in round one. 

Harrison, a heavyweight, was a much bigger name than Pat Brown at the point at which he turned pro, but one could argue whether he was more popular. Indeed, the beauty of Brown’s debut on Friday is that it highlighted his popularity, at least locally, and also did enough, in terms of action, to suggest there are reasons why his popularity will only increase once the shackles are off.

“If you want to come forward against me, you’re in for a ding-dong,” Brown, 1-0 (1), said after beating Grandone. “That’s what you got a little bit of tonight. 

“Listen, there’s loads of learning to do; back to the drawing board. It was a good experience in front of a great crowd and we move on to the next one.”