When Denzel Bentley lost his British title to Nathan Heaney, his hopes of winning another world title were dashed. However, his impressive win over Danny Dignum and a potential win over Derrick Ozaze have not only kept him in shape but also put him in a position to fight for bigger fights at middleweight. The WBO number two contender spoke to Boxing News about staying grounded and why he needed to earn his way back to where he was a few years ago.
Interview by Shaun Brown
BN: You and Derrick Ozaze are both in London, have you two met before?
Database: Yeah, we have a lot of mutual friends so I know him too. We sparred about six years ago. He was visiting his family that week and he was at the gym that week, so we sparred that week.
It’s funny because I told someone just a few weeks before I found out we might be fighting that we were texting each other. So when it came out I was like, oh my gosh, this is a little embarrassing, but listen, it is what it is.
BN: I remember talking to you after the Kieran Smith win and you were a bit disappointed that your career had not been very active. You must be delighted to be playing regularly again.
Database: Absolutely. I like to be active. We’re always in the gym, training hard and stuff like that, because there’s a lot of people in the gym and some people might have a date, so I’ll camp with them and stuff like that. I’m always in the gym, I’m always ready, I’m always ready to fight. It’s not like I spend a lot of time after a fight and I have to get in shape.
I’ve always been in pretty good shape and like I’ve said a million times, I love to compete, I love to fight. I love that. So when I’m not active, I feel like I’m wasting time in the gym and I could be doing something else, spending time with my family or something, but I’m in the gym waiting for a date and I’m not getting one. That can be really frustrating. I put a lot of my time and my life into this sport and I don’t have a lot of time left. I want to get as much done as possible now so that when I leave this sport, I’ll be happy with how my career went.
BN: You beat Danny Dignum and are expected to beat Ozaze again. If you win on Saturday, you must be itching for a bigger match at Queensberry.
Database: Honestly, I understood my position. If I had beaten [Nathan] Heaney, I’ll be there. I know I have to go back against [Danny] Dignum and it was a great performance and I showed it was just a bad night against Heaney. I’m a contender at middleweight, but it’s just one fight. I have to do it again before I can start saying, great, can we move on now? I understand the loss.
I understand that I have to take a step back to move forward again and that’s what I’m doing. With this fight, it’s a good fight. Ozaze is a good fighter. He’s a good fighter. I’m widely expected to win because I’m more known than him. He’s really not that well known.
So it’s like, who is this guy? But he’s a tough fighter. He’s a good fighter. He’s strong and he’s game. I think this could turn into a dogfight, but whatever it is, I just have to make sure I get my hands up at the end of it. I can’t take him for granted and have another mistake. I have to get through this and then I can start asking other questions like how do I move forward.
BN: You said As for knowing where you stand, that’s a very honest and realistic assessment. Are you always realistic?
Database: Yes, 100%. You have to be realistic in life. We all have expectations. We all want to be somewhere and we all want to be at the top of whatever we do. But you have to ask yourself, do you deserve it? What have you done to deserve it? In this game, you have to be a little bit delusional.
You have to feel like you’re the best to compete with the best. I don’t doubt that, but you also have to understand your journey and your position. As I’ve said a million times, I didn’t come to boxing the normal way. I came late. I didn’t do much as an amateur. So I started in small shows, then I got picked up by Frank. [Warren] because of the relationship and we got into a show at the last minute and I impressed.
I’m not expected to do anything. So why do I feel like someone needs to push me just because I feel like I should be pushed? I have to prove my worth. I know what I feel I’m worth, but I have to show everyone else what I feel I’m worth and what I feel I can do. And I feel like the more real you are, the less you’ll get upset. I know I’m a good fighter, but I also understand my place. I understand that I have to prove myself.
I have to take my chances and win. Just because I think I’m a good fighter doesn’t mean I should be put here, there and there. I have to earn the right to be put in those spots. That being said, I feel like there are a lot of fighters in good spots that have something else going on that drives them. They might sell a lot of tickets or they might have a social media presence. But I don’t feel like they’re the fighters that people think they are and that other things have secured them there. I don’t like social media. I’m not a big outside figure.
BN: We recently saw your old rival Nathan Heaney lose to Brad Pauls. And Tyler Denny got the biggest win of his career against Felix Cash. Did you expect those results?
Database: To be honest, I thought Pauls would win the first match, then he would draw. Then I thought, when he came back, Heaney must have known what he did wrong and Heaney would beat him.
It was an interesting fight. I thought when he took Heaney down, the fight was going to Brad Pauls. I thought the first three rounds were Heaney and I thought, yeah, he’s running away with this.
When he got knocked out, Brad Pauls started winning almost every round from there for me and then he stopped him at the end. Cash and Tyler Denny, I didn’t expect that. I thought Cash was going to knock him out, but like, how good is Cash? How fresh is he? He hasn’t been active in a long time. He has a new trainer, how’s that going? But just because of the level we saw Cash box at, I expected Cash to beat him on points. I didn’t think he was going to stop him on points. So when I saw Tyler beat him, I knew it was stopped on a cut, but he won every round for me anyway.
BN: Are you expecting another reversal between Tyler and Hamzah Sheeraz?
Database: I know it sounds crazy to doubt him again, but Hamzah is a different kind of fighter. Cash has talent and he’s good, but he’s very undisciplined. He’s inactive, he’s not really disciplined. He lives a reckless life outside of boxing and as you get older, all that catches up to you. You can’t handle all that stress. Hamzah is the opposite, especially in the ring.
I think it’s going to be hard to break Hamzah’s defense. It’s going to be hard to break him down and get him out of rhythm. Get him to do something that he’s not used to because he’s very disciplined and listens to his coach. If his coach says something, he’s going to go out there and do it. Like the Ammo Williams fight, he got caught with a big left hand. He was shaken up, he didn’t panic. He just sat in his shell, waited for the storm to pass and then started throwing his shots and catching them in the middle. I think it’s going to be a pretty similar fight to that one.
