{"id":224086,"date":"2025-10-19T02:05:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T02:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/224086\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T02:05:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T02:05:21","slug":"jody-morris-beats-david-bentley-by-unanimous-decision-in-charity-boxing-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/224086\/","title":{"rendered":"Jody Morris beats David Bentley by unanimous decision in charity boxing thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chelsea<\/a> great Jody Morris<\/a> beat former Tottenham<\/a> midfielder David Bentley<\/a> by unanimous decision in a charity boxing<\/a> match.<\/p>\n

Morris and Bentley were the headline attraction of a five-fight card made up entirely of former footballers<\/a> and organised by ex-Arsenal goalkeeper Graham Stack.<\/p>\n

Stack dubbed the event \u2018A Night to Remember\u2019, and it lived up to its billing. He made clear before the event that the evening\u2019s bouts are \u201cnot about the result in the ring, but the results outside of it,\u201d but his fighters did not seem to get the memo – they held nothing back.<\/p>\n

Bentley danced into the ring and was on the offensive from the first bell, landing a series of huge blows, but Morris kept his feet and responded. The former Chelsea man was the smaller fighter but had the requisite technique to keep pace, responding with smart bodyshots.<\/p>\n

He appeared to take a slight lead into the final round and continued to throw punches through to the final bell as Bentley faded. The fight came down to the judges\u2019 decision, but it was no surprise to see Morris\u2019 hand raised by the referee.<\/p>\n

\"Headline:<\/p>\n

Headline: David Bentley vs Jody Morris (Pro Project Promotions \/ A Night To Remember)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worked fairly hard for the last seven, eight weeks, and I\u2019m pleased I did, otherwise I\u2019d have been dead on my feet,\u201d Morris said afterwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to get caught up in the occasion. What little boxing accumen I have, I tried to use it. I felt alright in there. Took a couple of shots from Dave, but I was quite content with what I was taking so I didn\u2019t mind walking forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpurs have tried for ages, but they always lose to the Chels. But let\u2019s not forget, (Bentley is) Arsenal as well, so we\u2019ve done Arsenal and Spurs in one night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bentley added: \u201cI think I\u2019m better at promoting boxing than I am actually boxing. I wanted to get in the ring and its to raise money for charity, and that is what its all about, so congratulations to Jody.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank God I didn\u2019t go down. I wouldn\u2019t have got back up!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Undercard:<\/p>\n

Undercard: A Night to Remember featured ten former professional footballers (Pro Project Promotions \/ A Night To Remember)<\/p>\n

The first fight of the night, between Curtis Davies and Paddy Kenny, was over in a matter of moments as the former Sheffield United shot stopper was knocked out seconds into a frenetic first round.<\/p>\n

The following bout between two journeymen, Leroy Lita and David Noble, was just as wild but went the full distance. Lita, who came in with a slight advantage given he holds a black belt in taekwondo, won by unanimous decision, leaving Noble bloodied.<\/p>\n

Seasoned Tottenham defender Anthony Gardner also went the distance with Lee Trundle, who was quick out of the gates but quickly tired. Gardner\u2019s patient approach paid off, and he won by unanimous decision.<\/p>\n

Marvin Elliott left it late to beat Greg Halford in the evening\u2019s penultimate bout. There was little to separate the pair after two of the three rounds, but Elliott\u2019s offensive flurry deep late on made the judges\u2019 decision easier than it might have been.<\/p>\n

The event was in support of four charities – Helping Hands, Willow, Sport In Mind, and Play Skill – with its fundraising target set at \u00a3500,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chelsea great Jody Morris beat former Tottenham midfielder David Bentley by unanimous decision in a charity boxing match.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,135300,135301,135302,85,9222],"class_list":{"0":"post-224086","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-david-bentley","12":"tag-graham-stack","13":"tag-jody-morris","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-unanimous-decision"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224086","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=224086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}