Abdullah Mason

Early career

Mason signed with the promotional company Top Rank when he turned pro. He made his debut on the undercard of Mikaela Mayer vs Maïva Hamadouche in Las Vegas, where he stopped his opponent Jaylan Phillips in the second round following a barrage of punches and the referee jumped in. Mason's second fight took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on the undercard of Oscar Valdez vs Shakur Stevenson, where he knocked out Argentine Luciano Ramos in the first round.

Mason later fought on the undercard of Devin Haney vs. Vasiliy Lomachenko against American Desmond Lyons, where he scored a knockout victory in the sixth round. Now with a record of 10–0, Mason made his T-Mobile Arena debut on the undercard of Shakur Stevenson vs Edwin De Los Santos, where he scored another knockout victory against the Argentine Jose Cardenas in the second round.

Mason was scheduled to face Giovanni Cabrera in Las Vegas on April 5, 2025. On March 21, 2025, it was reported that Cabrera withdrew due to injury, and was replaced by Carlos Ornelas. Fighting on his 21st birthday, he scored a sixth-round stoppage victory over Ornelas, improving his record to 18–0 and winning the vacant NABF and NABO lightweight titles.

WBO lightweight champion

In his first world title fight, Mason faced fellow unbeaten boxer, Sam Noakes, for the vacant WBO lightweight championship at the ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on November 22, 2025. He won via unanimous decision with the judges scorecards reading 115–113, 115–113 and 117–111 and improving to 20–0. The victory made Mason the youngest active male world champion at 21 years old.

On April 6, 2026, it was announced that Mason would make a first defence of his WBO title against The Ring No. 10 ranked former champion Joe Cordina (18–1, 9 KOs) on 4 July at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, live on DAZN. This would mark his first professional fight in his hometown. On June 24, 2026, the fight was cancelled after Cordina was denied a visa to enter the United States. 33-year-old Albert Bell (28–0, 9 KOs) was brought in as a replacement opponent. Bell was originally scheduled to fight on July 18 in an IBF lightweight eliminator against Andy Cruz. Mason weighed at the 135 pound limit and Bell weighed 134.9 pounds.

Mason retained his WBO title by stopping Bell in what was described as a competitive bout that ended in controversy over the referee's stoppage. Mason started off by targeting Bell's body, while Bell countered effectively, making the early rounds closely contested. In the second round, a clash of heads caused a cut above Mason’s eye, which affected the pace of the fight early on. Bell gave Mason one of the toughest tests of his career, landing solid punches throughout the bout. Despite Bell’s counterattacks and forward pressure, Mason adjusted his strategy and gradually wore him down. Mason came out quick from his corner to start the last round, believing he was down on the cards. He dropped Bell twice with left hooks. Following the second knockdown, referee Mark Nelson stepped in and waved the fight off at the 0:45 mark. Through the first six rounds, Bell outlanded Mason 56 to 38 in shots landed. Overall, Mason landed 201 of 482 punches thrown (42%) and Bell landed 167 of 398 (42%). After the fight, Bell revealed that a clean punch completely changed the fight: "He caught me in the nose. I couldn't breathe. I think he probably fractured my nose... after that it was just pretty much trying to get by." He admitted he was frustrated about not being allowed to finish the fight. Mason admitted his corner used a mental trick to fire him up. "He told me I was down on the cards. I wasn’t down, but naturally, he wanted to make sure I got out there and got the job done... So I was like, ‘Okay bet, let me get him out of here" According on Nielsen Media Research, the broadcast across TNT, DAZN, and truTV peaked at 820,000 viewers and averaged 661,000 viewers. TNT stated that wider event coverage, including the press conference, weigh-in and pre- and post-fight programming, reached “more than 3.2 million viewers” across the three platforms.

The ending caused controversy, with commentators and fighters like Devin Haney labelling it a premature or poor stoppage, as Bell wanted to finish on his feet. However, the official judges' scorecards showed that Mason was ahead at the time of the stoppage (106–103, 107–102, 107–102), which meant he had already secured the win via the scorecards. The controversy around the stoppage continued in media outlets and among boxing fans, fuelling debates on officiating standards and fight safety.