Boxing priest Fr Pierre 'Jalapeno' Pepper scores victory over YouTube challenger

Fr Pierre Pepper was carried by fellow priests after defeating Jared Madden during the charity boxing match on March 15.Reuters

Your arm's too short to box with God, the song says. And Jared 'Artful Dodger' Madden found that God's local representative was too much for him as well.

Madden challenged Irish priest Fr Pierre Pepper – nicknamed 'Jalapeno' – to a boxing match in a video that quickly went viral. Pepper responded with a video of his own, complete with threatening biblical quotations, and a series of hilariously bad-tempered exchanges followed.

Appearances on The Late Late Show and other outlets ensured maximum publicity for the encounter in a marquee in the grounds of JJ Hough's pub in Banagher, County Offaly.

Pepper trained rigorously for the event and destroyed his rival over three, three-minute rounds, securing a points victory. He told the Irish Times that he had aimed for a knockout but "couldn't get a swing at his head".

"I slaughtered him," he said.

Thirty men and women took part in the event, with the Madden-Pepper bout on second.

Funds raised from the event will go to local groups, St Vincent De Paul and the Irish Motor Neuron Disease Association.