Newly-crowned British middleweight champion Nathan Heaney is eyeing a world title shot against unified world titlist Janibek Alimkhanuly this time next year, after detailing his three-fight plan for 2024 – including headlining Stoke’s football stadium in the summer after making a defence of the Londsale belt.
Heaney’s world title aspirations buoyed by Bentley win
- Stoke’s unbeaten middleweight Heaney (18-0, 6 KOs) produced a career-best display to outfox and ultimately emerge a surprising majority decision winner over former world title challenger Denzel Bentley to win the British title during their Manchester main event last month
- Queensberry chief Frank Warren, who promotes both, said he’s open to making a rematch in future – former champion Bentley told me earlier this month he feels the same, though the timing might not be right given Hamzah Sheeraz vs. Liam Williams has been rescheduled for February 10
- On his newfound social media visitors: “I keep getting random messages from people with the Kazakhstan flag in their name saying I’m gonna get banged out by Janibek – one every three or four days saying I’m gonna get knocked out, or put my record up with six knockouts and a laughing face next to it. I don’t need a KO to beat you,” he told BoxingScene.com
The sight of Nathan Heaney being comfortable enough to showboat, beckoning Denzel Bentley towards him on a night of upsets in Manchester last month speaks to the quiet confidence he’s built under trainer Steve Woodvine especially at a time where most critics dismissed his chances. Now, the possibilities are endless.
While a world title fight still feels a little premature for the 34-year-old, he knows time is of the essence and that’s why a three-fight plan for 2024 has been devised – culminating with unified WBO, IBF middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly.
Janibek unified titles at 160lbs with a sixth-round TKO win over new champion Vincenzo Gualtieri in mid-October, having blasted beyond Canada’s Steven Butler inside two rounds five months earlier to defend his WBO strap.
The belief from many was that fan favourite Heaney was being carefully matched, protected and pushed in a way that favoured his ability to sell tickets up North.
He might’ve been unbeaten, but would eventually come unstuck when boxing against someone with better pedigree, superior experience, more skills on paper. Bentley’s record wasn’t flawless, though he had those advantages to call upon.
That’s why his performance against Bentley was remarkable to see unfold in real-time, controlling the distance and refusing to let Bentley build any momentum – absorbing a series of heavy-handed punches and firing back twice as often.
The bulk of the rounds he lost were of his own doing as the eagerness to impress saw him fall into some traps and engage in the pocket too often, he admitted post-fight.
You can tell he relishes the underdog tag and maintaining that overlooked edge will serve him well into the new year, where those critics will heighten and his career-best win branded nothing more than a once-in-a-lifetime display in the right conditions.
“I do love it that people still don’t think I’m good enough, the motivation I had in that fight, that underdog mentality, it’s legit.
I do like it and think I’m always gonna be like that. This year is quite exciting – before you’d be thinking about what fights might come up but now I do believe in myself more, the way I beat Bentley wasn’t a fluke.”
Some insiders have already picked holes in said victory, suggesting Bentley was flat and probably underestimated him given the 28-year-old’s own world title ambitions after a competitive defeat on short-notice against Janibek last November.
Heaney hears the noise but believes this result offers a springboard to even greater success than was deemed possible beforehand:
“I’ve always said that if you’re a British champion you can go on to do anything. Most are high quality fighters who can perform on the world stage, it was only a couple of years ago when I started thinking I could win it… just depends who’s put in-front of you.
This wasn’t a standard British title fight, [Bentley] was a guy being lined up to fight Janibek in a rematch potentially. If it’s possible for him to be on the world stage then I beat him convincingly, it’s possible for me.
Me and Steve [Woodvine, his trainer] just knew what makes Denzel great and not so. Every person I’ve watched – even Janibek – as soon as they hold their feet with Bentley he punches holes in them. People can say he was flat, this and that but I don’t agree, believe I made him perform the way he did.”
Weather constraints and the rigours of a nine-month football calendar mean Heaney would have to wait until the summer to achieve his dream of fighting at Stoke’s Bet365 Stadium, though he knows the Bentley win can catapult him further if he’s able to maintain that consistency when other challenges arrive in 2024.
There was a noticeable Stoke contingent making themselves heard and producing a vociferous atmosphere with him in Manchester and that will likely be the same again if his next bout isn’t the homecoming just yet, given how much is at stake now.
“Before, my supporters deserved that event but now I’ve proved that as a fighter, I deserve it too. For me, the ideal plan would be to defend the British title early in 2024, fight at the ground in the summer and if I win that then ideally I’d love to fight Janibek. Las Vegas, Saudi, I don’t care – anywhere – I’d love just to fight for a world title, be the first person from my city to do it.”
Picture source: Getty Images, quotes via BoxingScene.com
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