Andy Morris (born 10 March 1983) is a British former boxer who competed professionally from 2003 to 2010. He held the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, this ...

title from 2005 to 2006 and challenged twice for the vacant Commonwealth

super featherweight Super featherweight, also known as junior lightweight, is a boxing weight classes, weight division in professional boxing, contested between and . The super featherweight division was established by the New York Walker Law in 1920, although firs ...

title in 2010. As an amateur, he won a bronze medal in the

lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing. Notable lightweight boxe ...

division at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England.

Boxing career

Amateur career

Morris won the 2002 Amateur Boxing Association British lightweight title, when boxing out of the West Wythenshawe ABC.

Professional career

Morris had his first professional contest in January 2003 when he scored a points win over Jason Nesbitt at the Guild Hall in Preston. Four more fights that year resulted in four more victories giving Morris an unbeaten record of 5-0 at the end of his debut year. The following year saw another four wins for the

boxer ensuring a record of 9-0 at the end of 2004. On 20 May 2005 Morris won the English title with a victory over Rocky Dean at the Elephant and Castle in Southwark.

British Featherweight champion

On 5 November 2005 Morris challenged Scotland's John Simpson for the vacant British title at the

Braehead Arena The Braehead Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Renfrewshire, Scotland. The arena was built in 1999, and is located within the Braehead Complex. The arena was formerly the home of the Scottish Eagles ice hockey club and is now the home to the ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

winning via unanimous decision over 12 rounds. He made a successful first defence of the title defeating the then undefeated

Rendall Munroe Rendall Munroe (born 1 June 1980 in Leicester, England) is a retired English super bantamweight boxer. Munroe currently resides in Leicester. He is also a former holder of the EBU and Commonwealth Super Bantamweight titles. His dayjob as a bi ...

again in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

with the location this time being in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. On 9 December 2006 Morris made a second defence against previous victim

Simpson Simpson most often refers to: * Simpson (name), a British surname *''The Simpsons'', an animated American sitcom **The Simpson family, central characters of the series ''The Simpsons'' Simpson may also refer to: Organizations Schools *Simpso ...

and suffered his first defeat when a bad cut forced the fight to be called off handing victory to Simpson. On 7 September 2007 Morris got a chance to regain his title at the Grosvenor House in Mayfair and lost for the second time to Simpson with the fight this time being called off in the 7th round.

Comeback and Super Featherweight challenge

Following the second defeat to

, Morris took some time off from the ring saying that he needed time to analyze the defeat and what he could do to change things. He eventually returned with a victory over Youssef Al Hamidi on 27 March 2009. Two more wins followed in 2009 against Jesus Garcia Simon and Pierre Francois Bonicel before being given the opportunity in 2010 to fight once more for the British title although this time up at super featherweight. His opponent for the championship bout on 5 March 2010 was Dewsbury's

Gary Sykes Gary Sykes (born 13 February 1984) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2006 to 2016. He held the British super-featherweight title twice between 2010 and 2014, and challenged for the Commonwealth super-featherweight and li ...

who had earned the shot following an eliminator win against Manchester's

Anthony Crolla Anthony Crolla (born 16 November 1986) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2006 to 2019.. Retrieved 27 March 2017. He held the WBA lightweight title from 2015 to 2016, and challenged once for the unified WBA and WBO ligh ...

.Manchester Evening News , Mr nice guy Crolla turns nasty
/ref> The fight, in

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

, ended in a unanimous but very close points victory for the undefeated Sykes and a third career defeat for Morris. Reflecting on the tight nature of the contest Sykes said after the fight "It was a real close decision and a tough fight for me".Andy split from long time trainer Bob Shannon citing 'needing a fresh start'. Signing with Hatton Promotions having left Frank Warren, Morris rebounded from the defeat with a win over

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boxer Nugzar Margvelashvili on 24 May 2010, making light work of his opponent and saying that he was "hungry for another shot" at the British title. Morris' last contest was for the English Super Featherweight Title at Bolton Arena v Anthony Crolla. Although clearly winning every round at distance and utilising his greatest weapon of body shots Morris' tired in the second half of the fight and was eventually stopped in the 6th round. This signalled the end of what proved to be a relatively unfulfilled but successful career. Morris finished having won the English and British Featherweight Titles, an earlier Commonwealth bronze at lightweight after taking a string of Amateur honours. Morris returned to his Landscaping business and his expanding family.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Andy 1983 births Living people English male boxers Featherweight boxers Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Commonwealth Games medallists in boxing People from Wythenshawe Sportspeople from Greater Manchester Boxers at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2002 Commonwealth Games