Finding his confidence…

Last week  ‘Gorgeous’ George French stepped up a a few notches just six weeks after going for trials for the Queensbury boxing league writes Carl Denne of Hastings Kickboxing Academy (HKA)! 

They could see he had talent and offered us a tough match against an very experienced boxer Ami Raham.

In true HKA spirit we took the fight. George knows if he wants to be at the top then we have to fight the best!  

Ami’s record was 19-2-0, with one pro fight under his belt. Ami has also knocked out the last four opponents that stood in front of him. Most of the evening people were saying, ‘Wow you’re fighting the General’, or ‘careful he hits hard – good luck’.

George only just lost on a majority decision, being only 2-0 in white collar!  On paper this really should have been a walk in the park for Ami. 

In round one, George was very cautious as we knew Ami had stopping power and he caught catching George with a few body shots letting him know he wasn’t there to mess around. 

Round two was much the same. George started to find his feet but was still very cautious only throwing ones and twos, making sure he didn’t get caught with that monster right of Ami’s. 

In round three we started to have fun. I think George found his confidence and began to open up a little, taking some Risks and throwing back some heavy shots himself, knocking Ami down when he lost his footing so there was no count. But this helped George’s confidence and he started to fight back harder. 

By round four we had to go out for a war as it was a close fight. This was a great round. Both lads were smiling, nodding and acknowledging each other’s shots, neither man wanted to yield, both wanted a KO. At the final bell both lads were still standing tall. 

Not only had we survived, we had gone the distance in a close match where we should’ve been battered from round one. 

Ami was a great young man with an awesome story to tell and a warrior at heart; the better man won on the evening!  

I’m Extremely proud of George for this performance it was a huge step up and he didn’t disappoint us at all, flying the HKA flag high as always. 

For 2020 watch this space……….. 

For more details on HKA and training with this amazing team please visit HKA web site for more details on how they can help you today, www.hastingskickboxing.co.uk