David Bentley has never been one to turn down a challenge, even if it is to his detriment. In 2008, on England duty, he got roped into playing what was meant to be a lighthearted game with Jimmy Bullard, shouting \u201cPostman Pat\u201d at Fabio Capello in training, on account of the manager\u2019s likeness to the children\u2019s character. Capello \u2013 perhaps unsurprisingly \u2013 did not see the funny side and Bentley never played for England again.<\/p>\n
Bentley has always been audacious. When coming through at Arsenal, he accidentally sat in the seat of the club captain, Patrick Vieira, in the canteen. When the Frenchman tapped the then teenager on the shoulder, ordering him to vacate the seat in front of the rest of the squad, Bentley refused as a matter of principle. \u201cI wasn\u2019t going to let anyone mug me off,\u201d Bentley says. \u201cIf I was on the street, no chance. I\u2019m not moving. There\u2019s a hierarchy but I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m not having that. But I can feel his hand on my shoulder now.\u201d He spent the next three months getting kicked in training by Vieira and excluded from nights out with the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to create chaos but I don\u2019t like to be surrounded by it,\u201d says Bentley, who retired from football aged 29<\/a> more than a decade ago but has again put himself in the firing line in signing up to a charity boxing match against the former Chelsea midfielder and coach Jody Morris, with the sold-out fight due to take place on Saturday in London.<\/p>\n It is a spectacle notable for its curiosity \u2013 nobody appears to have asked for this \u2013 and despite Bentley\u2019s remarks to the contrary, an event featuring four other fights between former footballers on the undercard has a novel yet chaotic\u00a0feel.<\/p>\n The former Sheffield United goalkeeper Paddy Kenny is not well enough to attend the media day but we are told he will recover to fight Curtis Davies. Leroy Lita, a black belt in taekwondo, is another press conference absentee because he is attending an unspecified course. Lita\u2019s opponent, David Noble, is here but admits his ambition for the fight is \u201cjust to hear the last bell\u201d. The Football League journeyman Greg Halford has been partnered with Marvin Elliott, and the Swansea City legend Lee Trundle \u2013 still playing semi-pro football in the Welsh leagues at 49 \u2013 will have the unenviable task of flooring the 6ft 5in, one-cap England defender Anthony Gardner.<\/p>\n David Bentley earned seven senior caps for England but Fabio Capello did not appear to appreciate his sense of humour. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Bentley v Morris is an intriguing and baffling match-up. The pair do not have any history, any beef \u2013 the pre-fight press conference is apparently only the second time they have met. \u201cI didn\u2019t know him from Adam,\u201d says Morris. \u201cHe was a very good, technically gifted footballer. Yeah, I\u2019m hoping his technical ability in the ring is not the same.\u201d<\/p>\n They do not seem particularly well matched and appear to have been thrown together: Morris is squat and strong, a bundle of muscle standing at 5ft 5in, while Bentley is taller, leaner and five years younger at 41. \u201cWe\u2019ve been sparring with Danny DeVito, actually,\u201d jokes Bentley\u2019s trainer, Kevin Mitchell, the renowned former British boxer<\/a>.<\/p>\n Amid the pre-fight barbs, there is a serious undertone. Getting punched in the head is a serious business, even \u2013 and perhaps especially \u2013 at an amateur level. While all of the fighters should be praised for voluntarily putting their bodies on the line, free of charge, there is a question to be asked over whether getting whacked is the best way to raise money for charity, entertain punters or keep former professional footballers fit and busy in their retirement. A boxing fight has more at stake than, say, a marathon, where the principal danger for middle-aged men is wearing out their knees.<\/p>\n England Boxing<\/a>, the governing body, confirmed to the Guardian that it had not been approached by the organisers and said in a statement: \u201cWhite-collar and other forms of unregulated boxing do not fall under the remit of England Boxing. At present, white-collar boxing is typically organised by private promoters and not subject to the safety standards and oversight that govern amateur or professional boxing.\u201d<\/p>\n It should be said that the fights \u2013 each three two-minute rounds \u2013 will be properly officiated, with medical personnel on hand, and the boxers have experienced coaches in their corner to protect them \u2013 Morris has been assigned the former IBF middleweight world champion Darren Barker<\/a>. Not all white-collar boxing events can say the same.<\/p>\n Jody Morris playing for Chelsea Legends this month. He grew up in a family with a keen interest in boxing. Photograph: Darren Walsh\/Chelsea FC\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The organiser, the former Arsenal and Barnet goalkeeper Graham Stack, has promised to raise \u00a3500,000 for the charities Playskill, Sport In Mind, the Willow Foundation and Helping Hands. That is not to be sniffed at, and considerable investment has been made in terms of sponsorship, ringside entertainment \u2013 James DeGale and George Groves will be present and Peter Crouch, Paul Merson and Ray Parlour will take part in a Q&A session between the bouts \u2013 and in the venue, the Grosvenor House hotel in Mayfair.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Morris grew up a few miles away on the Cheesemans estate in West Kensington, and would walk to Stamford Bridge to play his first games for Chelsea in 1996. He was raised as a keen boxing fan: his uncle was an amateur fighter and his mother was keener on boxing than football.<\/p>\n Morris is sporting a black eye, evidence of his training. \u201cI got a decent hiding in sparring,\u201d he says. \u201cI was just at a gym in Aldgate East and they got a Ukrainian kid in, a southpaw. I\u2019m pleased to be out the other side of it, and not go down. This kid was punching miles harder than what Bentley is going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n David Bentley came up against Thierry Henry for Blackburn but as a youngster clashed with the Frenchman in Arsenal training. Photograph: Eddie Keogh\/Reuters<\/p>\n It\u2019s slightly harder to discern why the impeccably groomed Bentley was drawn to this fight, given the former Tottenham and Blackburn winger is busy with his bars and businesses in Marbella, as well as a new gig on TalkSport. \u201cI\u2019ve got four children that I\u2019m raising, they probably think I can\u2019t fight,\u201d Bentley says. \u201cSo it\u2019s to showcase to them: \u2018Look, you can do anything if you put your mind to it and you can step into the most uncomfortable situation.\u2019 You have to have courage to even step into that ring, get your head whacked and take it. It won\u2019t be the first time I\u2019ve had a row, it\u2019s just the first time that I\u2019ve boxed.\u201d<\/p>\n If Morris is the latest Bentley has squared up to, Thierry Henry was one of the first, the pair nearly coming to blows in Arsenal training, which was notoriously tough under Ars\u00e8ne Wenger. \u201cTalk about physicality,\u201d Bentley says. \u201cI\u2019ve come off black eyes, ripped shirts, bashed up. Even as a skinny lad, you\u2019d have to defend yourself and have it. Wenger used to have competitive small-sided games, seven-sevens, 21 players. He used to keep the same teams all week. If you got beat the day before, you\u2019d be fuming. You\u2019re going home like you\u2019ve just lost the World Cup final.<\/p>\n \u201cSure, Thierry is one of the best players to ever live, but he was mugging me off that day, trying to dictate the session. I\u2019m getting the hump. I had a goal disallowed. He was trying to make up his own rules and it went off. I had gloves on, so I\u2019ve whipped my gloves off. \u2018Come on, then!\u2019 It never came to blows, thank God, because Henry would have laid me out.\u201d<\/p>\n Bentley will be hoping for a different result come Saturday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Bentley has never been one to turn down a challenge, even if it is to his detriment.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-221993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}