George Hennon shines Saturday night in first stoppage win
28-year-old welterweight George Hennon (7-1, 1KO) stole the show at the York Hall on Saturday night, November 19, on a Goodwin Boxing show.
From Maidstone, Kent, stylish fighter Hennon stopped tricky Bulgarian Teodor Nikolov (5-46-4, 1KO) in round four of a scheduled six at ‘The Home of Boxing’ in front of a raucous support.
Hennon looked strong from the start but was up against a very mobile opponent who knew the ring very well, moving laterally from left to right, right to left. Hennon endeavoured to cut off the ring, which he did so well but his opponent was on his bike for the entirety of the bout.
Nikolov was competent and clever and always managed to throw his shots at the right time to upset Hennon’s rhythm and plan of attack.
In the third round, an uppercut followed by a body shot resulted in a delayed effect to Nikolov going down on one knee, but he was back on his feet again and only had a few seconds to endure before being saved by the bell.
In the fourth, Hennon walked his opponent down relentlessly, looking for the stoppage, but he remained patient and economical to make every shot count. A good body shot landed from Hennon in his home corner, which looked like it hurt the Bulgarian, but he battled on until the Kent puncher lined up a long-ranging straight right hand to the chin of Nikolov that downed him for the second time in the fight.
This time, referee Chas Coakley had seen enough and waved off the bout at 2:42 of the fourth round, securing Hennon’s first ever career stoppage.
Post-fight, an elated Hennon commented, “Yeah, he took a bit of working out. To be fair, the ref was good because in his last fights all he wanted to do was hold and every time he tried to hold, the ref would stop him, so that made it a little bit better but yeah he was so mobile, moved both ways and he was hitting on the move as well.
“His punches didn’t feel too much because he was never actually set to throw that right hand, it was always a looping hook on the way out, but yeah just took a little bit of breaking down but we knew if we put the pressure on him, we could maybe potentially get him out of there.
“He really didn’t want to be stopped in this fight because he had been told by the Board [British Boxing Board of Control] said that he needed a big performance, so he was up for it.”
George then praised his huge following, who raised the roof off the York Hall on the night, “I would just like to say how unreal my support is. From the team I have around me in the dressing room to everyone who buys tickets in support. Unbelievable noise every time I make that ring walk. Singing the whole way through, just so overwhelming when I look back at it.
“I’m looking for a big 2023 with a title fight early to midway through the year.”
Trained by George O’Mahoney in Aylesford, Hennon had five professional boxing fights under ex-pro Johnny Greaves between 2015-2016, winning four home bouts and losing one away fight against Sam Ball in Scotland.
After a five-year break, Hennon teamed up with O’Mahoney to make his comeback, which has now seen him win three fights in five months to take his record up to 7-1.
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