Cory Paterson (born 14 July 1987) is an Australian professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who plays as a forward. He previously played for the

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. They compete in Australasia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, th ...

North Queensland Cowboys The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest town in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL). Sinc ...

and the

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional rugby league football team, based in the Inner West and South West Sydney. They have competed in the National Rugby League since being formed at the end of the 1999 NRL season as a joint-venture ...

in the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

and

Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England, that competes in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby league. The club has won five league championships, and one Challenge ...

Leigh Centurions The Leigh Leopards are a professional rugby league club based in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England, who compete in the Betfred Super League. The club was founded in 1878, and is one of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern ...

and the

Salford Red Devils The Salford Red Devils are a professional rugby league club in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, who play in the Super League. Formed in 1873, they have won six Championships and one Challenge Cup. Their home ground since 2012 has been th ...

in the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of ...

. He played for the

Toronto Wolfpack The Toronto Wolfpack are a Canadian professional rugby league club based in Toronto, Ontario, who compete in the North American Rugby League. The club originally competed in the British rugby league system but withdrew in the Super League XXV, ...

and

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Sta ...

in the Betfred Championship. He is also a professional

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: *Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing *Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom *Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe eel, ...

Background

Paterson was born in

Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

Career

After playing junior rugby league in his home town of

, with

South Perth Lions South Perth Lions Rugby League Club are an Australian rugby league football club based in South Perth, Western Australia formed in 1948. They conduct teams for both Juniors & Seniors. The club also participates in the WARL (Western Australian Rug ...

. Paterson then attended

St Francis Xavier's College, Hamilton St Francis Xavier's College Hamilton is a Catholic secondary school located within the suburb of Hamilton, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1985 by the Marist Brothers as a Year 7-10 boys high school, the school is now co-educ ...

and in 2005 represented Australia at schoolboy level.

Newcastle

In 2007, Cory Paterson was promoted to train with the

first team squad. He made his début in round 2 of that year in a win against the

St. George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons is an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George, Sydney, St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since NR ...

. At the end of the 2008 season, Paterson was selected in the

Prime Minister's XIII Prime Minister's XIII, or sometimes informally referred to as the PM's XIII, is the name of a representative rugby league team, comprising Australian players from National Rugby League clubs that did not qualify for the NRL Finals, or whose t ...

to play the Papua New Guinea national team in

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

. He then toured the United States to visit a number of

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the maj ...

clubs and trial for the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Ra ...

as a punter. Paterson suffered depression during the 2009 season, causing him to miss some NRL matches, but returned to good form on the field in 2010 season, when he was selected for the Indigenous All Stars squad. In 2011, Paterson represented the Indigenous All Stars again, but midway through the season he was released from his contract by the Knights, a decision made by the club's incoming coach Wayne Bennett.

North Queensland

After being released by Newcastle, Paterson almost immediately signed for the

, on a contract to play for the remainder of the

2011 NRL season The 2011 NRL season was the 104th season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the fourteenth and last run by the National Rugby League's partnership committee of the Australian Rugby League and News Ltd. The NRL ...

and two additional seasons. Paterson was told by the Knights that he was not part of their long-term plans and was free to look elsewhere for 2011 and beyond. Paterson converted to Islam during the 2011 season, requiring him to

fast Fast or FAST may refer to: * Fast (noun), high speed or velocity * Fast (noun, verb), to practice fasting, abstaining from food and/or water for a certain period of time Acronyms and coded Computing and software * ''Faceted Application of Subje ...

during daylight hours in the month of August, co-inciding with the Cowboys run-in to the NRL finals series. Paterson is close to former professional

footballer

Anthony Mundine Anthony Mundine Jr. (born 21 May 1975) is an Australian former professional boxer and rugby league footballer. In boxing he competed from 2000 to 2021, and held the WBA super-middleweight title twice between 2003 and 2008. He also held the ...

and current prominent rugby league player

Sonny Bill Williams Sonny Bill Williams (born 3 August 1985) is a New Zealand heavyweight boxer, and a former professional rugby league and rugby union player and as of recently is working for Stan Sports. He is only the second person to represent New Zealand in ...

, who both converted to Islam. He sought advice on fasting as a professional rugby league player from

Hazem El-Masri Hazem El Masri ( ar, حازم المصري; born 1 April 1976) is a Lebanese Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a er in the 1990s and 2000s. An international representative for Australia and Lebanon, and a New ...

, a devout Muslim who played over 300 first-grade matches for the

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facili ...

. Paterson played 7 games for North Queensland in his first (half) season with the club, he was a member of their qualifying finals series team and scored 4 tries, including a double against the

. Paterson started the 2012 season of playing representative football for the Indigenous All Stars against the

NRL All Stars team The NRL All Stars team was a rugby league football team made up of professional players in the National Rugby League. These players were selected by fan vote. However, fans were only allowed to select one player from each NRL team to join the Au ...

, he then played in only 2 NRL matches for the North Queensland Cowboys after half the season had finished (starting in both, scoring one try) due to injuries and indifferent form.

Hull Kingston Rovers

On 27 June 2012, he signed a two-year deal with

side

. Paterson coached the Hawaiian All-stars rugby league representative team in their match against

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Indigenous at

Oahu, Hawaii Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O� ...

on 27 October 2012. The match occurred during the

2012 Haida Gwaii earthquake The 2012 Haida Gwaii earthquake occurred just after . The shock had a moment magnitude of 7.8 and a maximum Mercalli Intensity of V (''Moderate''). The earthquake's epicentre was on Moresby Island of the Haida Gwaii archipelago (formerly know ...

, while tsunami alerts were issued for the islands. While at Hull KR, Paterson formed a successful combination with Michael Dobson. However, it has been reported he has sought an early release from the club to be with his family in Australia.

West Tigers

It was announced in August 2013 that Paterson would join NRL club

on a one-year deal starting in 2014. At the end of the

2014 NRL season The 2014 NRL season was the 107th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 17th season of the National Rugby League in Australia and New Zealand. The season started in New Zealand, for the Auckland Nines, replacing the Rugby League ...

and after a total of 96 NRL appearances, Paterson announced his rugby league retirement to pursue his dream of a professional heavyweight boxing career.

Salford Red Devils

At the end of 2014, Paterson ended his brief rugby league retirement and agreed to a one-year deal to play for the Super League club

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

for the 2015 season. It saw him reunite with former teammate Michael Dobson. The deal includes the option of a second season at Salford.

Leigh Centurions

In September 2015, it was announced that Paterson would join

for the

2016 RFL Championship The 2016 Rugby Football League Championship, known as Kingstone Press Championship due to sponsorship by Kingstone Press Cider, was a rugby league football competition played in the UK, one tier below the first tier Super League. The 2016 seaso ...

. In January 2016, he was made one of two vice-captains for the Centurions.

Toronto Wolfpack

In December 2017 Paterson joined the

on a two-year deal.

Boxing

On 5 October 2012, Paterson made a successful boxing début against Anton Tuilotolava. On 12 November 2014, he won his second fight, on the undercard of the Mundine-Rabchenko fight, against Michael Lua Tama by 1st-round TKO. It was his first fight since retiring from rugby league to begin a career in boxing.

Record

References

External links

Toronto Wolfpack profileLeigh Centurions profileCory Paterson boxing record

BoxRec BoxRec or boxrec.com is a website dedicated to holding updated records of professional and amateur boxers, both male and female. It also maintains a MediaWiki-based encyclopaedia of boxing. The objective of the site is to document every profe ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paterson, Cory 1987 births Living people Australian male boxers Australian Muslims Australian rugby league players Australian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate sportspeople in Canada Converts to Islam Heavyweight boxers Hull Kingston Rovers players Indigenous All Stars players Indigenous Australian boxers Indigenous Australian rugby league players Lakes United Seagulls players Leigh Centurions players Newcastle Knights players North Queensland Cowboys players Prime Minister's XIII players Rugby league centres Rugby league players from Perth, Western Australia Rugby league second-rows Salford Red Devils players Toronto Wolfpack players Western Suburbs Rosellas players Wests Tigers NSW Cup players Wests Tigers players