LONDON – Denzel Bentley hopes to progress towards a rematch with the IBF and WBO middleweight champion Zhanibek Alimkhanuly after victory over Brad Pauls at Wembley Arena.
The 29 year old lost to Alimkhanuly in 2022, and despite winning one of the finest contests staged in Britain in 2024 showed little to suggest he will be more competitive if and when they fight again.
After six rounds Pauls, 31 and the defending British champion, appeared in the ascendancy. Bentley then made sufficient adjustments and recorded a knockdown to deserve the unanimous decision he was rewarded, even if the score of 115-112, more so than those of 117-110 and 116-111, seemed fairest.
In victory Bentley also earned the vacant European title, but if his superior quality proved influential over the course of a competitive contest, he will have to improve considerably more to convincingly challenge the world’s finest middleweight.
Bentley’s advantage in size contributed to him succeeding with right hands and jabs during the opening round, and complementing them with a right to the body.
He absorbed a left to the chin from Pauls in the second, but responded with a counter left to the chin, a jab that backed Pauls up, and an admirably-timed right that then hurt him.
Pauls’ most convincing period started from the third, when his often superior work-rate was most effective. At the expense of one right hand he landed another, and he then landed a left when Bentley’s wild swings missed.
An overhand right and left from Pauls, before he also landed three further lefts, built his sense of momentum in the fourth, and in the fifth he succeeded with successive rights while Bentley struggled with his intensity and grit.
When in the sixth Bentley offered little more than a right from close range after taking another right from Pauls and a further right to the body he looked on course for what had been considered an unlikely defeat.
Bentley instead responded convincingly in the seventh, and to such an extent – he landed a left-right, and made Pauls twice swing and miss before another left-right – he showed he had learned how to read him.
It was in the 10th when a left jab from Bentley forced Pauls to take a knee, after which he struggled under assault from Bentley and to such an extent he increasingly looked on course for his second defeat.
Both fighters were hurt while they traded in the 11th with both of Pauls’ eyes and Bentley’s left eye swelling up. When Paul landed a left, Bentley responded with a right and then a left to the body. A right from Pauls was followed by he, too, landing a left to the body, when perhaps only Bentley’s superior technique kept him in front.
They, similarly, throughout the 12th, struggled to truly seize the momentum as they continued fighting. Bentley, more than Pauls, looked like he believed he had won at the final bell. The scores then confirmed he had done so – in so doing putting his career back on course.