After a strong amateur career, Bond turned professional for the
1989–90 season. He reached his first ranking semi-final in his first season, and his first final in his second season, but his career peaked in the mid-1990s. In the first round of the
1994 World Championship, he pulled off one of the biggest comebacks in the event's history, rallying from 2–9 to defeat
Cliff Thorburn 10–9 in what turned out to be Thorburn's last appearance at the Crucible. A year later, Bond reached the final after beating
Stephen Lee,
Alan McManus,
Gary Wilkinson and
Andy Hicks, but lost to
Stephen Hendry 9–18. As a consequence of reaching the final, he climbed to number five in the world rankings for the
1996–97 season, and in that same season he acquired his only ranking tournament victory, the
British Open, beating
John Higgins 9–8 after needing a snooker in the final frame. He won the World Snooker Association Performance of the Year award for this achievement, although he then failed to maintain this level of performance. He reached at least the quarter-finals at the
Crucible Theatre every year from 1993 to 1996, losing to Hendry every time, which added extra spice to their first-round match in
2006. After leading comfortably throughout the early stages of the match, Bond was pegged back to 7–7 and the match went to a final frame. With only the black remaining, and seven points up, Bond clipped it into the left corner pocket, only for the cue ball to go in the right middle pocket, resulting in a re-spotted black (the first one ever to decide the final frame of a World Championship match), which Bond potted to take frame and match. The final score was 10–9, Bond's first win at the Crucible since 1999, and his only last-16 run of that season. By the end of the 1990s, he was out of the top 16, and dropped out of the top 32 for the
2004–05 season. However, he reclaimed his place a year later, and remained there until 2010. In the
2007 World Championship he lost in the first round, 7–10 to
Peter Ebdon. A run to the last 16 of the
2007 UK Championship, in which he came from 5–7 to win 9–7 against
Ken Doherty in the last 32 before losing 6–9 to
Ding Junhui in the last 16, was a precursor to Bond's first quarter-final run for five years, at the
China Open. Victories over
David Roe, Stephen Lee and
Barry Pinches took him to a meeting with
Stephen Maguire, who whitewashed him 5–0. He opened the
2008–09 season with first-round defeats in the first five tournaments, but victory over Ebdon in the first round of the
World Championship ensured that he held his top-32 status. This was, however, his last appearance at the main stages of the World Championship. On 30 January 2011, Bond won the
Snooker Shoot-Out event. This involved the top 64 players in the world playing 10-minute matches decided on a single frame. He picked up the £32,000 prize money as well as the Snooker Shoot-Out trophy, beating
Robert Milkins 58–24 in the final. He made a good start to the
2011–12 season by qualifying for the first two ranking event tournaments, the
Australian Goldfields Open and the
Shanghai Masters. He lost to
Neil Robertson and
Mark Selby respectively in the first round. He also qualified for the
World Open, but was defeated by amateur player
Lu Ning in the wildcard round. He once again qualified for the
Australian Goldfields Open in the
2012–13 season, but lost to Robertson 1–5 in the last 32. In December, he reached the
World Open in
Haikou, China, with wins over
Jimmy White and
Jamie Burnett. At the venue he saw off Zhu Yinghui 5–3 in the wildcard round and received a bye through to the last 16 due to the withdrawal of
Ali Carter. Bond was also crowned
World Seniors champion during the season without dropping a frame in a total of seven matches, concluding with a 2–0 victory against
Tony Chappel in the final. His season ended when he was beaten 8–10 by McManus in the third round of
World Championship Qualifying. He dropped a solitary place during the year to end it ranked world number 46. He reached the final of the
World Seniors Championship for the second year in a row in the
2013–14 season, losing 1–2 to
Steve Davis. He only won two matches at the main venue of ranking events all season, his best run coming in the
China Open, where he beat Pinches 5–2 before losing to Selby 1–5 in the last 32. He fell 11 spots from the start of the season to end it as the world number 57. He produced a comeback in the second round of the
2014 UK Championship, as from 0–5 down against world number five
Barry Hawkins he took six successive frames to advance. However, in the third round
Anthony McGill recovered from 1–4 down to eliminate him 6–5. The furthest Bond could progress in a ranking event this season was at the
Indian Open, where he beat
Ryan Day 4–1 and
Dechawat Poomjaeng 4–3, before losing 1–4 to
Chris Wakelin in the last 16. He fell just outside the top 64 at the end of the year as he was ranked 65th, but he earned a two-year extension via the European Order of Merit. At the
2016 Indian Open, Bond defeated
Ricky Walden 4–1,
Sam Baird 4–2,
John Astley 4–2 and Ebdon 4–3 to reach his first ranking event semi-final since 2002, where he lost 1–4 to
Kyren Wilson. He had started practising at the Snooker Academy in Sheffield with young Chinese players and stated that this has contributed to him regaining the hunger and passion to play snooker. He would have a losing run of 10 successive matches shortly afterwards, but at the
Gibraltar Open he beat five players to reach his second semi-final of the season, where he failed to pick up a frame in a defeat to
Shaun Murphy. Bond kept his place on the tour through the one-year ranking list. Bond made a surprise run to the quarter-finals of the
2019 UK Championship at the age of 54 winning a number of close matches. He defeated future world champion
Luca Brecel 6–5 in his opening round followed by another 6–5 win over
Louis Heathcote. His greatest victory en route to the quarter-finals was a 6–3 win against reigning world champion and world number 1 Judd Trump in the last 32 having trailed 3–1. Bond lost 6–5 to
Mark Allen in the quarter-finals having led Allen 3–1. ==Performance and rankings timeline==