{"id":702650,"date":"2026-07-21T02:43:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T02:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/702650\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T02:43:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T02:43:13","slug":"new-british-boxing-world-champion-crowned-after-controversial-title-holder-relinquishes-belt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/702650\/","title":{"rendered":"New British boxing world champion crowned after controversial title holder relinquishes belt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Britain’s Denzel Bentley has finally been elevated to full WBO middleweight champion.<\/p>\n

Bentley picked up the WBO interim title in April when he stopped Endry Saavedra of Venezuela<\/a> inside seven rounds on the Derek Chisora<\/a> vs Deontay Wilder<\/a> undercard.<\/p>\n

\"Denzel<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Bentley (left) is now the WBO middleweight championCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

The interim title fight had been made under controversial circumstances after the WBO opted to keep Janibek Alimkhanuly as its world champion while the Kazakh served a ban for a failed drug test.<\/p>\n

Alimkhanuly returned adverse findings for the banned metabolic modulator, meldonium<\/a>, less than a week before he was due to collide with Erislandy Lara in a WBA, IBF and WBO unification clash in December.<\/p>\n

The IBF stripped Alimkhanuly, but while the WBO suspended the 32-year-old for a year, he remained the sanctioning body’s world champion until he voluntarily relinquished the belt on Monday.<\/p>\n

WBO president Gustavo Olivieri confirmed to talkSPORT.com that Alimkhanuly had given up his belt in order to move up to 168lbs.<\/p>\n

READ MORE ON BOXING <\/p>\n

Bentley had previously expressed his frustrations with the WBO’s ruling during an appearance on talkSPORT in April.<\/p>\n

“I won this title here, and it should have been for the full world title, not the interim,” said Bentley.<\/p>\n

“As we speak, the full world champion [Janibek Alimkhanuly] is suspended for taking PEDS.<\/p>\n

“I don’t see how you can be suspended by anyone and keep your titles.<\/p>\n

“He’s suspended for a year, so I can’t fight him until then, which is why he shouldn’t hold his title. <\/p>\n

“I was No.1, I fought the No. 2, and it should have been for the full world title to let us both fulfil our dreams, but that unfortunately didn’t happen for us.<\/p>\n

\"Denzel<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Bentley finally has a world title to show for his effortsCredit: Getty\"Alimkhanuly<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Alimkhanuly relinquished the belt to move up to super middleweightCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

“Hopefully, the WBO can now make a decision and upgrade me to full world champion.”<\/p>\n

After three months of waiting, Bentley took to Instagram on Monday to write: “Got the email. WORLD CHAMPION.”<\/p>\n

Bentley’s promoter, Frank Warren<\/a>, was among the first to congratulate ‘2Sharp’.<\/p>\n

“Great news for Denzel Bentley – a huge achievement for him, Martin Bowers and the whole team,” the Hall of Famer wrote on X.<\/p>\n

“Said back in April he grabbed the opportunity when it came, one that was fully deserved. Congratulations, champ!”<\/p>\n

Watch Boxing on DAZN<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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Click here to sign up<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain’s Denzel Bentley has finally been elevated to full WBO middleweight champion. Bentley picked up the WBO interim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6102,233212,86052,78448,101,56,54,55,16625],"class_list":["post-702650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-world-champions","tag-denzel-bentley","tag-janibek-alimkhanuly","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wbo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}