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Frank Warren is hoping to tempt Zhanibek Alimkhanuly to the UK for his rematch with Denzel Bentley.
The 29-year-old Bentley impressed on Saturday at Wembley Arena when he earned scores of 117-110, 116-111 and 115-112 to dethrone Brad Pauls as the British middleweight champion, earn the vacant European title, and near being installed as the mandatory challenger to Alimkhanuly’s WBO title.
Bentley travelled to Las Vegas in November 2022 when, via unanimous decision, he lost to Kazakhstan’s Alimkhanuly. His promoter regardless believes that he has since matured as a fighter, and is capable of demonstrating as much in the coming four-to-five months in what will be one of the final significant fights of Queensberry Promotions’ broadcast deal with TNT Sports, before their move to DAZN.
That Alimkhanuly, 31, was forced to travel to Sydney, Australia to defend his IBF title against New Zealand’s Andrei Mikhailovich in October is potentially an indicator of how his promoters Top Rank may treat purse bids for a rematch with Bentley, which was far from in demand. It, regardless, may be equally relevant that Mikhailovich fights out of a less influential market than Bentley, and that October’s fight was postponed from July when Alimkhanuly fainted attempting to make weight.
“In an ideal world I’d like to get him here, but like any of these things, you’ve only got a certain percentage of the purse bid to play with if you go to purse bids,” Warren told BoxingScene. “He might have to travel – I don’t know. It’ll be within the next four or five months.
“I’m hoping he is struggling at the weight. But I can only look at the fight last time, and he was going into that fight, Denzel, and everybody’s telling him, basically, he’s going to be there to make up the numbers. The first four rounds he was very, very cautious, and he got into the fight, and once he got into the fight he give him a problem. Those earlier rounds were Zhanibek’s, but had he started earlier he could have won that fight.
“He’s a good fighter. But, on his day – on his day – Denzel’s a good fighter. He’s got to be at his best. He’s a handful for anybody; sometimes he fights at the level he’s in with.
“He’s got a good chance. I think it’s a 50-50 fight. He’s been in with him, and he knows he could have won it, so he does fancy the job. He’s had a couple of problems outside the ring, which hopefully they’re all done and dusted, but on his day he’s a handful.”
The victory over Pauls was the most impressive of the five fights Bentley has entered since Alimkhanuly defeated him via two scores of 116-112 and another of 118-110.
“It was a bloody good fight, wasn’t it?” Warren said of Saturday’s main event. “Very competitive. Brad made it competitive, didn’t he? He come to fight – I quite like Brad; he’s a tough old sod – and Denzel, he’s got himself into a position where he’s mandatory challenger.
“That’s where he wants to be. He knows what he’s got in front of him in Zhanibek. Last time around he could have won that fight, but the first four rounds, he just seemed to be feeling him out rather than fighting him. He knows what he’s got in front of him, and it’s a great opportunity for him.”