Thaxton won the title with a third-round knockout of Juan-Carlos Diaz Melero at the Showground in October and Hennessy believes that his punching power would stand up to the world's best.
No sporting event has greater popularity or higher stakes than soccer's World Cup, and they manage to sort that whole clambake out in about a month with a round-robin group stage that shifts to a single-elimination knockout round.
He held on to the belts for just two years before Kelly Pavlik defeated him with a seventh-round knockout.
On the same bill, Mexico's Rafael Marquez retained his IBF bantamweight title with a third-round knockout of Heriberto Ruiz.
Froch is back to full fitness after fracturing his hand in his last fight, an 11th-round knockout win over Brian Magee.
He strung together 18 lopsided victories before colliding with a crushing left hook from Columbian Breidis Prescott in 2008 and suffering a first-round knockout.
Briggs won the WBO title with a 12th-round knockout of Sergei Liakhovich in November 2006 but lost the title in his first defence against Sultan Ibragimov eight months later.
The 1998 Commonwealth Games champion reignited his career by winning Prizefighter last year and then scored a 12th-round knockout against Michael Sprott to win the EBU heavyweight title in April.
Sprott, 35, won by a stunning third-round knockout when he met Harrison for the European crown in 2007, but the Bedford fighter has lost four of his last six fights.
BBC: Audley Harrison faces Michael Sprott for European title
Cook was floored five times by the American en route to an 11th-round knockout, but the former British, European and Commonwealth featherweight champion says he will be a different proposition at the higher weight.
On the undercard, champion Jorge Arce retained the WBC light flyweight title with a third-round technical knockout of Mexican compatriot Augustin Luna.
The all-action, three-fight, three-round straight knockout tournament was probably his last chance at winning over critics, sceptics and doubters of his future in the sport following four defeats in his last eight fights.
All 12 teams will play in the knockout stages where they are seeded according to their group-round record.
After a promising start to the tournament in Germany, Spain were defeated 3-1 to eventual finalists France in the first knockout round.
BBC: SPORT | Football | Internationals | Oubina in Spain squad for Windsor
In that context, the tournament's format becomes even more important, since reaching the knockout round can make the difference between a good year and a loss-making one.
In the elimination round, archers are paired head-to-head in a knockout format.
He labelled the end of the contest in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), which underdog Ali won by knockout in the eighth round to reclaim the world heavyweight crown at the age of 32 - as "the most extraordinary few seconds that I have ever seen in a boxing ring".
From the Round of 16 onwards, it's a straight, two-legged knockout affair, which means poor refereeing performances, a tough draw or simply a bad day can skew the results.
But if the English can add greater control to their scatter-gun approach play, there is a growing belief that this team can cause some noise in the knockout round.
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