Jack Bodell (11 August 1940 – 9 November 2016) was an English professional boxer who competed in the

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Male boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 2 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation an ...

division.

Boxing career

Born in

Swadlincote Swadlincote is a historic mining town in the district of South Derbyshire, in the county of Derbyshire, England. It lies within The National Forest (England), The National Forest area. It borders the counties of Leicestershire and Staffordshire ...

, Derbyshire, Bodell started out as a

light heavyweight Light heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the division is above and up to , falling between super middleweight and cruiserweight (boxing), cruiserweight. The light heavyweight class has ...

, winning the 1961 ABA championships and a bronze medal at the European amateur championships the same year. Bodell turned professional in 1962 and won the British heavyweight championship in 1969, before losing it to Henry Cooper in his first defense. Bodell regained the title a year later by outpointing Joe Bugner. He lost the European title in 1971 after a defeat by Spaniard José Manuel Urtaín, and after losing both his British and Commonwealth titles to a second-round knockout by

Danny McAlinden Daniel McAlinden (1 June 1947 – 8 March 2021) was a boxer from Northern Ireland. He won the British and Commonwealth heavyweight championship in 1972 when he defeated Jack Bodell in two rounds at Aston Villa football ground. Nicknamed "Danger ...

in June 1972, he retired from professional boxing. Among his notable fights were a first-round

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...

loss to Jerry Quarry after just 64 seconds, and a points win over future world title contender José Roman. Bodell's record was 58 wins (including 31 by knockout) and 13 losses. He died on 9 November 2016 at the age of 76.

Professional boxing record

In popular culture

Jack Bodell is mentioned in the "Boxing Tonight" sketch in episode 37 of Monty Python's Flying Circus, in which he (played by Nosher Powell) fights Sir Kenneth Clark (played by

Graham Chapman Graham Chapman (8 January 1941 – 4 October 1989) was a British actor, comedian and writer. He was one of the six members of the Surreal humour, surrealist comedy group Monty Python. He portrayed authority figures such as The Colonel (Monty Py ...

Boxing career

Professional boxing record

In popular culture

References

External links

See also