New signings suggest a change of fortune for Hennessy Sports

After a testing period, things are starting to look up for Hennessy Sports. This week the promotional outfit has announced the capture of promising amateurs Tyler Goodjohn (light-welter) and John “Gorilla” Ryder (middleweight), the first new signings that Mick Hennessy has made in some time.

Former junior ABA champion Goodjohn and Ryder will make their debuts on Hennessy Sports’ show at York Hall in Bethnal Green on 10 September, topped by John O’Donnell’s 12-rounder against Terrance Cauthen and the latest appearance of heavyweight hopeful Tyson Fury. O’Donnell’s and Fury’s contests will be screened across America on Showtime’s ShoBox series and, intriguingly, will also be broadcast by a soon-to-be-revealed UK broadcaster.

Hennessy Sports has been without a TV deal since ITV4 pulled the plug on their boxing coverage at the end of 2009. Despite his best efforts in the interim period, Mick Hennessy has failed to attract a major UK broadcaster to televise his flagship fighter’s Carl Froch’s matches in the Super Six super-middleweight tournament – Froch’s appearances against Andre Dirrell and Mikkel Kessler have been disappointingly tucked away on fledgling pay-per-view platform, Primetime.

In recent months, Hennessy has managed to secure his established fighters Darren Barker, John Murray and Lenny Daws some welcome air-time on SKY Sports courtesy of their relationship with Matchroom who already have an established television deal in place with SKY.

The coming weeks are going to be vital for the futures of several Hennessy Sports fighters and, one imagines, Mick Hennessy himself. O’Donnell and Fury must win to ensure their careers remain upwardly mobile, Darren Barker bids to make a major breakthrough when he defends his European middleweight title against Matthew Macklin on 18 September. A week later John Murray, whose contract with Hennessy Sports is rumoured to be up for renewal this autumn, defends his European lightweight crown against Andrei Kudriavtsev and is on the verge of entering world class.

Perhaps most crucially of all though is Carl Froch’s Super Six clash against Arthur Abraham in Monaco on 2 October. Victory for Froch would book “The Cobra” a semi-final place in the groundbreaking super-middleweight competition and bring with it, surely, the major television backing that Hennessy has been so desperately seeking.