Hennon a big hit on return

Maidstone’s George Hennon made a victorious return to the ring on Saturday, taking all four rounds against veteran journeyman Fonz Alexander.

Hennon (5-1) rounded off a six-fight card at the York Hall with a polished performance in his first fight in almost six years.

Trained by George

O’Mahoney in Aylesford, Hennon was roared on by more than 250 fans he brought to Bethnal Green. Despite the long lay-off, the welterweight rose to the occasion to deliver a punchperfect performance against the 138-fight veteran from Newark, coached, ironically, by Hennon’s former mentor Johnny Greaves.

“I didn’t take a shot, I felt really comfortable in there,” Hennon said.

“We know with Fonz he’ll always throw a big, looping hook so you can’t get too greedy, so I was throwing a few little throwaway shots then digging a couple in then stepping back.

“The main thing is that I felt so relaxed in there and I just need to take that into every fight.”

Having been back in training with O’Mahoney for a year, Hennon was on the front foot, using his jab regularly as a rangefinder, but also as a constant nuisance to keep his man thinking.

He managed to unleash a few flurries, including backhand uppercuts, but didn’t ever get too greedy. He delivered the combos, then stayed safe. In the second round Hennon was growing in confidence and landed another backhand uppercut, then he caught Fonz’s counter left hook on his right glove when the away fighter attempted to fire back.

Hennon was boxing better with each passing round.

The experienced Alexander attempted to come forward a few times during each session, but Hennon was so quick to evade his attacks. However in the third round he was happy to keep his feet in range to trade back.

In the last round, Fonz tried to entice Hennon into a war, but he wisely stuck to his boxing. There were times when Hennon fought fire with fire, even though he didn’t need to, but he was exuding such confidence and not taking any shots cleanly from the Nottingham man. “Going forward, [I’ll] hopefully be back out in September,” Hennon added. “Obviously there’s always improvements to be made, so we’ll take it fight by fight and see where we can go.”