Skokie Boxer Dons Gloves for ESPN Fight

Four years ago, George Esho thought about stopping his quest to be a professional boxer. He had lost his first match and didn’t have the motivation to continue training.

But Esho remembered another boxer that started his famed career with a loss: Bernard Hopkins. So the 29-year-old Skokie resident didn’t want to have to live with the what-ifs that would come with giving up his dream so early.

“I kind of missed [boxing],” said Esho, who took four years off after his first fight. “Again, I didn’t want the regrets when I’m 35 so I said, ‘Give it another shot.’ ”

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On Friday night--four months after defeating Nalo Leal for his first professional victory--Esho will fight at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, IN, as part of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights. He faces Aaron Lucky in a 138-pound match that serves as one of the undercards.  

Lucky has a similar experience to Esho: fighting in two matches and losing via a knockout each time. At 37 years old, he is taking on the younger Esho.

“I’m looking to go in there, be aggressive with him and try to finish it early,” Esho said in anticipation of the scheduled four-round junior welterweight bout being broadcast of ESPN2.

Esho says his training this summer has been “intense.” But boxing is still only his passion and not his full-time job, as he works in accounts payable at Northwestern University and teaches part time at , owns in Palatine.

In maintaining a regiment, Esho typically runs before work in the morning and then trains in the evening.

It was Achour who got his younger brother interested in boxing when he was younger.

“When he went to the gym at an early age, I saw how it was,” Esho recalled of his sibling's influence. “I was curious and he was my inspiration, pushing me toward that path.”

Esho had competed in Chicago’s famed Golden Gloves boxing tournament, but never really thought about a professional career until 2007. That’s when he decided to give it a shot.

“I said, ‘I’m 25 now…just go for it and see what happens,’ ” Esho said. “Until you try, you don’t know what can happen.”

Again he had his older brother to look up to. Achour is also trying to balance the management duties of Flo MMA while also pursuing his professional boxing career. Achour is 10-0 and has twice fought at the Indiana casino.

But on Friday, it will be Esho's night at center stage. Along with a myriad of family and friends, Achour will get to see George take another step in his boxing career.

“This is my biggest fight because of the venue,” George said. “This is for sure my biggest showcase and my biggest fight.”

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