Denzel Bentley stripped of WBO title before Shane Mosley Jr fight in London

The 31-year-old middleweight, who says he has been chased and shot at, has also spoken of losing friends in Battersea to knife and gun crime.

Denzel Bentley will face Shane Mosley Jr at London's Copper Box Arena on Saturday without his WBO world middleweight belt, after the sanctioning body refused to let him defend it against Mosley.

The WBO last Friday rejected Bentley's appeal that he was entitled to meet the world-ranked Mosley, rather than mandatory challenger Yoenli Hernández, in his first title defence. The 31-year-old said he was disappointed by the decision but still intends to go ahead with the fight, the first of a six-fight deal with Dana White's Zuffa Boxing.

Bentley said the WBO had an agreement with his former promoter, Queensberry, and that the body posted after Hernández's last fight that the champion would have a voluntary defence before the end of the year and then meet his mandatory challenger next year. He said: “Hernández can’t fight until next year but I can’t be inactive.” He won the WBO interim title by stopping Endry Saavedra at the O2 Arena in April and was upgraded to world champion in July, when the belt was vacated. Speaking at his gym in Essex, he said: “Weirdly enough I feel relief that the saga’s now over. We can move forward and look to win another world title.” Bentley said losing the belt would not alter his approach to Mosley, whom he described as good, tough and awkward. He said Zuffa's two world champions at middleweight, IBF title-holder Aaron McKenna and WBC title-holder Carlos Adames, meant there were plenty of fights available to him after he left Queensberry.

He also spoke about growing up around a council estate in Battersea, where he said he was chased and shot at as a teenager, and credited boxing with getting him out of trouble. Bentley said the number of friends he has lost to knife and gun crime runs into double figures. He said: “I can’t count how many friends I’ve lost.” The first was stabbed outside his house when Bentley was 12. Another close friend was stabbed to death in the build-up to his November 2023 defeat by Nathan Heaney, the most recent of three losses in 26 fights. A further friend was shot the night before he knocked out Danny Dignum in May 2024, and last month another, a bus driver he regarded as a little brother, was shot in the back and died.

READ NEXTWBO orders Hernandez v Zerafa for vacant title Denzel Bentley was stripped ofRead the next story →

Every UK fight result and what's next, every Friday. Get the free UK fight briefing

Add Combat Sports UK as a preferred source on Google