Denzel Bentley- “I am locked in on Mark Heffron”

I managed to catch up with Battersea born, Denzel “2Sharp” Bentley ahead of arguably his biggest professional fight to date. He has been dispatching his opponents with minimal fuss and will be looking to add Mark Heffron to that list on Saturday night. Denzel is still unbeaten as a professional and his record stands at 13-0 with 11 wins coming by stoppage.

As a professional, Denzel is yet to go past six rounds but insists he is fully prepared to go the distance in this fight if needed.

“In this fight, I will win however it may be. It would be great to add another knockout to my record but if not, I am fully prepared to go the full ten rounds and win on points. Going the distance is something I don’t really care about; I train for the full ten to twelve rounds and I have done for this fight.”

Denzel will be looking to win the vacant IBF European Middleweight Title on Saturday and I asked him about his thoughts on his career so far and what he expects from Mark.

“It is so far so good for me. I am looking forward to fighting Mark and even happier that it is a title fight. I am locked in on Mark Heffron and fully expecting the best version of Mark Heffron. I am also expecting the W.”

Denzel has already fought post lockdown with a 6th round stoppage win against Mick Hall, so he is familiar with no crowd but also the different set up for fighters that they must go through on fight week.

“For my fight against Mick Hall, the set up didn’t really bother me. It was strange and odd because usually I would be staying at home and cooking my own food. I am expecting things to be slightly different this time round though as it is a bigger card. It can be quite frustrating, but a lot has changed, and we must learn to adapt to the changes. Obviously, I would prefer to be fighting in front of crowds, but I cannot change that. I just want to be in good 50-50 fights and look forward to having crowds back because it means there is more money for the fighters on the card.”

With fighters winning and making a name for themselves, it means people talk about you more. After Robbie Chapman’s defeat to Fearghus Quinley on the recent Queensbury card, Denzel was being targeted by Chapman to renew their feud in the amateurs.

“I fought Robbie in the amateurs three times and yes he beat me twice, but the fight does not interest me. We have spoken recently about it, but I told I him I am not interested in fighting journeyman anymore, it is not the image I want to portray. If he had asked me earlier on in my professional career, then maybe I would have entertained the idea. For me, it is all about fighting in the big fights and fighting Robbie would be a step back. He is a tough guy, takes a good shot but I am miles ahead of him now.”

A win on Saturday opens up more doors for the Londoner and with the middleweight division thriving at present, it would be great for more domestic match-ups and I asked Denzel what his thoughts were of fighting the likes fellow Brits like Felix Cash in the near future.

“We will have to wait and see. With Cash being under the Matchroom banner, it would make things difficult but not impossible. Frank and Eddie are now talking which is great for British boxing. As I said previously, I want the big fights and if fights can be made between Matchroom and Queensbury, it will help me achieve that”.

Denzel Bentley takes on Mark Heffron for the vacant IBF European Middleweight Title and will be the chief support for Anthony Yarde this Saturday live on BT Sport.