Six months removed from his surprise defeat by Nathan Heaney, former British middleweight champion Denzel Bentley exercised patience and punishment in equal measure to stop former sparring partner Danny Dignum after a trio of knockdowns inside two rounds as the 29-year-old marked his return in style.
Bentley’s body shot barrage proves Dignum’s demise
- “Incredible performance!” Former two-weight world champion Carl Frampton hails Bentley’s display: “Dignum was a really strong opponent to be coming back to after losing against Nathan Heaney, he didn’t look great that night – don’t wanna take anything away – but maybe he wasn’t himself, didn’t make any excuses, if you’re world-class, that’s what you do.”
- Bentley details hardships before surprise Heaney loss, reveals first child Cairo had a premature birth and was in intensive care during the final month of his training camp prep which made it hard for him to focus
- Making a statement: “I’m feeling good and excited, said don’t call this a comeback because I just couldn’t lock in and give the performance I needed, no distractions and life’s going well… you saw what I did. I’m dangerous in this division, get my head right every time and I can do the business.”
- George Warren, Queensberry CEO: “I don’t wanna be disrespectful to Nathan, they’ve got their own careers and Heaney vs. Brad Pauls 2 is likely on our next Magnificent Seven card but we know Denzel wasn’t right that night, naturally I’d love to see that fight again. We want Denzel back out in July and with performances like this, he’ll be hard to match.”
R2, 2:53 — Denzel Bentley bt. Danny Dignum via TKO, wins WBO international middleweight title and improves to 19-3-1 with 16th career KO on 2024 debut
WHEN I spoke to Denzel Bentley as this fight was all-but-confirmed in early March, he was honest and looked a bit jaded by the same line of questioning. Sure it was a must-win fight, but so was the last one and that escalated quickly. This was precisely the sort of bout he needed to get up for, given those high stakes involved.
“Yeah it’s a big fight and we’ve both got to be on point, put on a show for those coming to watch,” he told me. Denzel didn’t allow Dignum to get going, one-way traffic and storming straight through his compatriot like he had better places to be.
Dignum’s one career defeat before this domestic duel came abroad in a two-round demolition job by now-unified world champion Janibek Alimkhanuly, this time two years ago in Las Vegas. Suggesting he’d retire if he fell short during the build-up to this York Hall headliner while honest, didn’t exactly help exude confidence.
While sparring sessions are useful, it’s not always a barometer of success as far as specific matchups are concerned in the pro ranks.
Bentley boxed behind his jab as both looked to counter in the early going, Bentley’s left hand to the head was setting up a right down to the body and Dignum offered little in the way of resistance despite feinting plenty.
He caught the younger man with a stinging left Bentley didn’t see coming in the pocket, just as he was pawing out the left jab again, before dirty boxing in the clinch saw referee John Latham separate them.
Bentley looked to counter off his back foot early in round two, and a probing right body shot set the wheels in motion for the first of three knockdowns.
Bentley followed it up with a straight right to ping Dignum’s head back, then a body shot forced the 31-year-old to recoil in pain on the canvas. Beat the count he did, but soon the same shot floored him and Denzel could sense a finish was in sight as he quickly closed the distance between them. Watch the clinical sequence here:
Said to be training in the gym all the time, calculated activity is key so it’ll be interesting to see who is next for the former world title challenger after George Warren’s announcement that Bentley will return again on a London show in July.
Undercard results, as Collins and Garner stay perfect
Nathaniel Collins was chin-checked a few times after a purposeful start and finished with a suspected broken nose, but went the 12-round distance for a second consecutive fight and answered more questions about his durability en route to a comfy UD12 win over Francesco Grandelli (116-112, 116-112, 117-111).
The 27-year-old, who has defended British and Commonwealth honours this past year, is now the EBU Silver featherweight champion – a relatively new title that will help him bridge the gap to world-level as he continues to test himself and naturally is using Nick Ball as motivation to reach the top at 126lbs before much longer.
Southampton’s Ryan Garner improved to 15-0 as a pro, passing his toughest test with flying colours to make the first defence of his WBC International super-featherweight title a memorable one, outworking former British divisional champion Liam Dillon over ten rounds in an entertaining encounter between domestic rivals.
In a trio of eight-round contests, there were contrasting victories for Oronzo Birardi, Royston Barney-Smith and Archie Sharp.
The latter had to recover from a pair of first-round knockdowns to outwork Reuquen Cona Facundo Arce with a 77-73 decision nod at super-featherweight while RBS improved to 10-0 against Jonatas Rodrigo Gomes de Oliveira (79-73).
Mainz resident Birardi got some invaluable experience under his belt on his second York Hall assignment, going the distance for the second time and edging a 77-75 win over credible opposition in Milans Volkovs (10-2-2, 6 KOs).
Although he still hasn’t made the 154lb weight limit as a pro, unbeaten light-middleweight prospect Ben Fail made his 2024 debut a short one, improving to 6-0 with his fifth stoppage victory stopping Ioan Alexandru Lutic after a powerful flurry.
However, this was an evening that will be remembered for what happened outside the ring as he and twin brother Carl got into a fiery exchange with English light-middleweight talent Junaid Bostan, needing to be separated by security:
Rising cruiserweight hopeful Tommy Fletcher improved to 8-0, logging another six rounds’ experience with a 60-54 win against 17-fight Belarusian pro Viktar Chvarkou.
Khalid Ali did the same at light-middle, going the full distance vs. John Henry Mosquera – who has almost exclusively been boxing British talented contenders across multiple weight divisions (135lb to 154lbs) over the past nine months.
Picture source: Getty Images
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