Black Tie & Boxing

Susan & Ronnie Morris

Story & Photography by Woody Woodard

From a small beginning, a vision of Ronnie & Susan Morris has become a giant that has arisen to generate funding for JDRF. This national organization was created to fight Type 1 Diabetes. T1D is an autoimmune disease requiring constant intervention and currently isn’t curable or preventable. Raj Midjah, West Tennessee Board President, and Executive Director Russ and Karen Ellis thanked everyone for their support.
The 4th Black Tie & Boxing benefitting JDRE-Type 1 diabetes brought in thirteen bouts, consisting of young youth wrestling, boxing exhibitions, kickboxing of men and women’s bouts and MMA bouts at 125# -135# - 150# - 155# -170# - 180# , with the 170# MMA Main Title bout.

Now, one could wonder who had the connections and skills to put together this type of fight card in Jackson Tennessee. It happens to be a professional MMA fighter and now promoter Ryan Collins, supported by wife Devin, who dreamed of supporting a worthy charity. The balcony was full of cheering fans, and the main floor was completely full of cheering, screaming, excited fans for this event. It was amazing to see the crowd involvement with the guys sometimes being drowned out by the girls! Jerry Corley and Gabe Hart got everyone out of their chairs in the first bout, which was billed as an exhibition, but it was a fight!