When Denzel Bentley lost his British title to Nathan Heaney, his hopes of another world title shot sailed further away. However, his impressive win against Danny Dignum and potentially another against Derrick Ozaze not only keeps him active but in the mix for bigger fights in the middleweight division. The number two WBO contender spoke to Boxing News about keeping his feet on the ground and why he needs to earn the right to get back to where he was a couple of years ago.
Interview by Shaun Brown
BN: With you and Derrick Ozaze both in London have you encountered one another before?
DB: Yeah, we have a lot of mutual friends so I kind of know him personally. We sparred about six years ago. He came down for the week to see his family, and he was in the gym for the week, so we sparred for that week.
It’s funny because I was saying to someone just a couple of weeks before I found out we could be fighting that we were messaging each other. So when it came out, I was like, oh man, it’s a bit awkward, but listen, it is what it is.
BN: I remember speaking to you after your win against Kieran Smith and you were a bit frustrated at the lack of activity in your career. You must be happy to be fighting regularly again.
DB: Most definitely. I enjoy being active. We’re always in the gym, working hard and stuff, because there’s so many people in the gym and someone might have a date, so I’ll be doing their camp with them and so on. I’m always in the gym, I’m always ready to go, I’m always ready to fight. It’s not like I take a lot of time out after fights and I’ve got to get back in shape.
I’m always in half decent shape and like I’ve said a million times, I like competing, I love fighting. I enjoy it. So when I’m not active, it just feels like I’m wasting time in the gym and I could be doing something else, spending time with the family or doing something, but I’m in the gym waiting for a date and not getting one. It can be really frustrating. I’m giving a lot of my time and my life to the sport and I ain’t got long in it. I want to get everything done now as much as I can, so that when I do leave the sport, I’m satisfied with how my career’s gone.
BN: You beat Danny Dignum and are expected to beat Ozaze as well. Should you win on Saturday you must surely be chapping on Queensberry’s door looking for a bigger fight.
DB: To be honest, I have to understand my position. If I had beat [Nathan] Heaney, I would have been there. I know I had to come back against [Danny] Dignum and that was a great performance and I showed that it was just an off night against Heaney. I am a contender in the middleweight division, but that’s only one fight. I’ve got to do it again before I can start saying, cool, now can we move on again? I understand the setback.
I understand I’ve got to take a step back to move forward again and that’s what I’m doing. With this fight, it’s a good fight. Ozaze is a good fighter. He’s a good fighter. I’m widely expected to win because I’m more known than him. He just isn’t really known much.
So it’s like, oh, who’s this guy? But he’s a tough fighter. He’s a good fighter. He’s strong and he’s game. I think this could turn out to be a dogfight, but whatever type of fight it is, I’ve just got to make sure I get my hand raised at the end of it. I can’t take him lightly and afford another slip-up. I’ve got to come through this and then I can start asking other questions like how do I move forward.
BN: You spoke about knowing your position, which is a very honest and realistic assessment. Have you always been a realist?
DB: Yeah, 100%. You have to be realistic in life. We’ve all got expectations. We all want to be in places and we all want to be at the top of whatever it is we do. But you’ve got to ask yourself, do you deserve it? What have you done to deserve it? In this game, you’ve got to be a bit deluded.
You’ve got to feel like you’re the best to be able to compete against the best. I’m not doubting that, but you also have to understand your journey and your position. Like I’ve said a million times, I didn’t come the conventional route into boxing. I came late. I didn’t do much as an amateur. So I started on small shows, then I got picked up by Frank [Warren] because of relationships and we jumped on a last minute show and I impressed.
I haven’t been expected to do anything. So why would I feel like someone needs to push me just because I feel like I should be pushed? I’ve got to show my worth. I know what I feel like I’m worth, but I’ve got to show everyone else what I feel like I’m worth and what I feel like I can do. And I feel like the more realistic you are, the less upset you’ll be. I know I’m a good fighter, but I also understand my position. I understand that I’ve got to prove I am.
I’ve got to get the opportunities and take them and win. Just because I think I’m a good fighter doesn’t mean I should be put here, there and there. I’ve got to earn my right to be put in these positions. Saying that, I feel like there’s a lot of fighters in good positions that have something else that helps push them. They might sell a lot of tickets or they might have a social media presence. But I just don’t feel like they’re the fighters that people think they are and but other things have warranted them to be in that position. I’m not big on social media. I’m not a big personality outside.
BN: We recently saw your old opponent Nathan Heaney lose to Brad Pauls. And Tyler Denny picked up the biggest win of his career against Felix Cash. Did you expect those outcomes?
DB: To be honest, I thought Pauls was going to win the first fight, then he drew. Then I thought, coming back, Heaney must know what he’s done wrong and Heaney will beat him.
It was an exciting fight. I think when he dropped Heaney, the fight was going Brad Pauls’ favor. I think the first three rounds were Heaney’s and I thought, yeah, he’s running away with this.
When he got put down, Brad Pauls started winning almost every round from there for me and then he stopped him in the end. Cash and Tyler Denny, I did not expect that. I thought Cash was going to get him, but it was like, how good is Cash? How fresh is he? He’s been inactive for a very long time. He’s got a new trainer, how’s it all work? But just because of the level we’ve seen Cash box at, I expected Cash to beat him on points. I didn’t think he was going to stop him on points. So when I saw Tyler beat him, I know it was stopped on a cut, but he was winning every round for me anyway.
BN: Do you expect another upset for Tyler against Hamzah Sheeraz?
DB: I know it sounds mad because I’m doubting him again, but Hamzah is a different kind of fighter. Cash is talented and he’s good, but he’s very ill-disciplined. He’s inactive, he’s not really disciplined. He lives a reckless life outside of boxing and as you get older, all that catches up to you. You can’t take on all that stress. Hamzah’s the opposite, especially in the ring.
I think it’s going to be hard to break through Hamzah’s defense. It’s going to be hard to break him and make him box out of rhythm. Make him do something he’s not used to doing because he’s very disciplined and listens to his coaches. If his coach says one thing, he’s going to go out there and do that. Just like the Ammo Williams fight, he got caught with a big left hand. He got rocked, he didn’t panic. He just sat in his shell, waited until the storm passed over and then started throwing his shots and catching them in between. I think it’s going to be pretty much a similar fight to that.