Bentley admits to being \u201cdisappointed\u201d and \u201cI don\u2019t feel as if I\u2019ve been treated like a champion\u201d; but he still intends to beat Mosley Jr in the first bout of a new six-fight deal with the American promoter Zuffa. But, as the 31-year-old talks in raw and moving detail, Bentley draws me back to the streets around his old council estate in Battersea where his friends were stabbed or shot dead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want a sob story,\u201d he says, \u201cbut boxing definitely saved me. I got out of a lot of trouble because of boxing. A lot of things happened on the estate and I was at the gym. I missed things by the skin of my teeth. But I\u2019ve been chased. I\u2019ve been shot at. I\u2019d be scared for my life. But, as a teenager, you become immune to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
His expression mixes resignation and relief. \u201cI\u2019m blessed and fortunate enough to be alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bentley has lost three of his 26 fights and, in the buildup to his last defeat, against Nathan Heaney in November 2023<\/a>, a close friend was killed in Battersea. \u201cI\u2019m from a background where you become numbed. Of course it\u2019s sad and it hurts but I\u2019ve lost friends more than once in the lead-up to a fight. That time was crazy because my friend got stabbed by someone we knew who needed money. He saw my friend and tried to steal his watch. My friend turned round and said: \u2018We know each other. How can you try and rob me?\u2019 They got into a scuffle and the other guy pulled out a knife and stabbed him multiple times. My friend died on the spot.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got the phone call and flew down there. The paramedics had arrived and the body was still there. [The dead man\u2019s] brother was in bits. I went to him and said: \u2018I don\u2019t even know what to say to you. This\u00a0is so hard.\u2019\u201d How many friends has he lost? \u201cTo knife and gun crime? It\u2019s a lot, man.\u201d<\/p>\n Do the deaths run into double figures? \u201cDefinitely. I can\u2019t count how many friends I\u2019ve lost. The first\u00a0time I lost someone to knife crime, I was 12. He got stabbed outside his house. Even the night before I fought Danny Dignum [whom Bentley knocked out in May\u00a02024<\/a>], another friend was shot. I blocked that out and got on with the fight. It made me feel guilty that I\u2019m celebrating my win and my friend\u2019s just lost his life and\u00a0his family are in bits.\u201d<\/p>\n Bentley has real presence but he needs to pause before resuming: \u201cPeople still live the same lives. That\u2019s what they\u2019re accustomed to and they can\u2019t break out of it. They\u2019re still people I\u2019ve got genuine\u00a0love for and I just hope I\u00a0don\u2019t have to lose no more friends\u00a0to the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n It must have been wounding to face death when he was just 12? \u201cYes,\u201d he says softly. \u201cIt was mad. I\u00a0remember going home that evening and lots of police were racing about. It was the summer and we were about to break up from\u00a0school and we could tell someone had got stabbed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe next day was the last day of\u00a0school and someone told me: \u2018Yeah, so-and-so got stabbed last night.\u2019 I was like: \u2018You\u2019re lying.\u2019 I\u2019d seen the commotion but I didn\u2019t know it was my friend. You feel guilty because you\u2019re not there for them. It\u2019s traumatic but there\u2019s nothing you can do. Even last month another friend of mine got\u00a0shot in the back and passed away. He was a bus driver and I\u00a0saw\u00a0him as a little brother.\u201d<\/p>\n Bentley is intelligent and the words flow from him. \u201cThere comes a day when something happens and you don\u2019t hurt as much. But I still go round the estate to see my mum and things happen. I\u2019d love to move her out. I want my kids to go see their grandma. But, listen, we\u2019re not in the middle of Gaza where people are going through so much worse than us. We\u2019re still privileged to be in positions where I can find a way to\u00a0move myself out.\u201d<\/p>\n We have a mutual friend in Isaac Chamberlain, the cruiserweight who grew up in Brixton. Before he was also saved by boxing, Isaac sold drugs when he was 11<\/a>. Did Bentley follow that same route? \u201cYes, 100%. That\u2019s how I\u2019m around these people that I\u2019ve lost in London. To us, that\u2019s normal. Or it was. Now that I have a kid of my own, I never want him to be in an environment like that. That\u2019s why I can\u2019t let boxing get the better of me. I don\u2019t care what I\u2019ve got to go through. I\u2019ve got to make sure my son\u2019s good and\u00a0if I\u00a0have more kids in the future\u00a0I don\u2019t want them to be around people doing things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Denzel Bentley works with his trainer Martin Bowers at the Peacock Gym in Epping. Of being stripped of his title, Bentley says: \u2018I feel relief that the saga\u2019s now over. We can move forward.\u2019 Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Bentley only began boxing when he was 17. Before then he had been a footballer. \u201cI stopped playing at 16,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople were saying: \u2018If you\u2019re not in an academy by now you\u2019re not going to make it.\u2019 So I was like: \u2018I\u2019m going to college now.\u2019 But I started taking boxing seriously when I made a conscious decision to leave university where I was studying sports science. I wanted to see if I could be a boxer.<\/p>\n \u201cI was working part-time at Sainsbury\u2019s and I\u2019d take a Santander bike to the gym in Bermondsey. Pay \u00a32 and, if you get there in under half an hour, you don\u2019t get charged another \u00a32.\u201d<\/p>\n Bentley laughs before he remembers the first words of genuine validation he heard in his life when his amateur trainer told him that he had the talent to become a champion. \u201cOh, Steve Hiser, what a man,\u201d he says. \u201cHe\u00a0took so many kids off the street and told me: \u2018You can be a champion. You can win things.\u2019 That sparked my confidence and got me believing.\u201d<\/p>\n He had become the British middleweight champion when Hiser died in 2023. \u201cHe was proud,\u201d\u00a0Bentley says, \u201cbut he was on his deathbed.\u201d<\/p>\n double quotation markMy cousin asked me why I wasn\u2019t fighting \u2013 he told me to sign up to Amazon deliveries. But nothing came upDenzel Bentley<\/p>\n Bentley fought for the WBO world title against Janibek Alimkhanuly in\u00a0Las Vegas in November 2022. He lost on points to a fighter who, three\u00a0years later, failed a drugs test. Bentley entered his own spell in the wilderness. After beating Brad Pauls in December 2024 to regain his British title and become European champion, Bentley went 16 months without a\u00a0fight as the machinations of boxing scuppered numerous bouts. \u201cIt was no fault of my own,\u201d Bentley\u00a0says. \u201cNo injury, nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n Did he make any money during those 16 months? \u201cI didn\u2019t get no pay. I had to start looking for jobs and when I couldn\u2019t get any we went back to [his former promoter] Frank Warren and he was kind enough to give me an advance. But after my next fight I\u2019m using that money to pay back everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Bentley points out that he was on the verge of becoming world champion but he ended\u00a0up trying to get work as an Amazon delivery driver. \u201cMy cousin asked me why I wasn\u2019t fighting. It\u2019s frustrating because I ain\u2019t got the answers. So he told me to sign up to\u00a0Amazon deliveries. It\u2019s a zero-hours contract and you work when you\u2019re available. If you\u2019re not training one day, you could do a 12-hour shift of delivery work. I\u00a0downloaded the app and put in my postcode but there were no jobs near me. I refreshed it every day and even tried to use my mum\u2019s address to see if I can get any jobs there. But nothing came up.\u201d<\/p>\n Denzel Bentley (right) lands a right hand on Endry Saavedra on his way to taking the WBO interim middleweight world title in April. Photograph: Richard Pelham\/Getty Images<\/p>\n In what other elite sport would a world-class operator be reduced to scrabbling around for a delivery job? \u201cThere is no other sport like it,\u201d Bentley says. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy but it makes my journey more unique.\u201d<\/p>\n What did his partner say when he went 16 months without steady pay? \u201cLuckily for me, my missus has got a good job so she just cracks\u00a0on with it.\u201d<\/p>\n He finally returned to the ring seven months ago when he stopped Endry Saavedra to win the WBO interim title<\/a> at the O2 Arena. In July Bentley was upgraded to being the WBO\u2019s world champion after Alimkhanuly vacated the title.<\/p>\n![\"Denzel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Denzel_Bentley_on_his_boxing_goals_and_fighting_for_his_family___video--c16f7d1d-15fb-4c64-886d-050c.jpeg\")
Denzel Bentley on his boxing goals and fighting for his family \u2013 video<\/p>\n