British Boxing: Twittering Tony’s Cash Giveaway

Tony Jeffries has been left feeling a twit by Sunderland striker Darren Bent – but he doesn’t mind one bit!

Olympic bronze medallist Jeffries had a £1000 charity bet with the England international over who would get the most tweets on social networking site, Twitter.

Bent managed to beat the Sunderland super-middleweight who now has to give £1000 to a charity of his choice.

Jeffries will give the money to The Tracy Crawford Foundation – a leukaemia charity set-up in Tracy’s memory that has so far raised hundreds of thousands to help patients at Sunderland Royal Hospital and other cancer charities.

‘Jaffa’ said: “Darren got ten times more followers than me, but I expected to lose because he is high profile.

“I am not complaining because the money is going to a fantastis charity and I have got to know Darren well since the bet was struck.

“I speak to Darren all the time and I have bumped into him at a few Sunderland games and he is a top lad.”

Jeffries, 24, will put that rare loss behind him when he bids for his fifth straight win against Latvian Andrejs Tolstihs at Newport Leisure Centre on Friday night (11th Dec).

He added: “I was a bit disappointed win my recent points wins and I want to put on a better performance this time around.

“I am planning to have a three week rest and then get back in action next year and improve even further.

“I had some promotional problems at the start of my career, but I don’t think any promoter in the world could do as good a job as Frank Maloney has done.”

Top of the Newport card the double title fight between Bristol’s British super-flyweight champion Lee Haskins (19-2) and Birmingham’s Commonwealth king Don Broadhurst (11-0).

Also in action are Olympic bronze medallists, 6ft 8in heavyweight David Price (3-0) and mandatory British light-middleweight contender Sam Webb (14-1)

Tickets are available £30 and £70 from 0871 226 1508 and www.frankmaloney.com. Fans of Jeffries can get tickets and coach transport by calling Phil Jeffries on 07747 611020