“Good question, can you hear the last bell? I want to keep him. I think I can stop him, but regardless, I’m prepared for 12 rounds. If I see an opportunity, I take it, if not, I feel comfortable making the rounds. I don’t force you to do anything.”

As Denzel Bentley prepares for the biggest fight of his professional career to date, he imagines his opponent on the canvas as the referee counts more than ten seconds.

Felix Cash will enter the ring with the Commonwealth title hanging from his belt, but Bentley intends to leave the ring after adding the Commonwealth title to his British title.

It’s a fighting week, but “2 Piercing” came out on top proboxing-fans.com while walking down memory lane, recalling his first day at the boxing gym: “I remember it was weird. I’ve never been to a boxing gym before.

“Everyone was already training. I think I might have been delayed, everyone was a bit hostile. I thought, “Jesus, that’s a bit rude.”

“I thought, ‘Oh, I want to box’ – they asked if I could box and I said no, and they said, ‘Well, you’re delayed, the locker rooms are over there, sign your name and keep fighting.’ I think, “Will no one show me this or walk me through the session?”

It wasn’t until several months later that Denzel was trained to properly punch, pull, and weave while correcting his posture. A year later, Bentley competed for the first time as an amateur.

Under the influence of Adrien Broner and Floyd Mayweather, Denzel may have approached boxing with pound signs, but the Battersea fighter quickly realized that it wasn’t just about billions.

“[I started boxing because I thought] there’s a lot of money to be made, which is why I thought this boxing game was kind of infirmed. Broner had “On Billions” and Mayweather had a lot of stuff on YouTube and I thought, “This is infirmed,” so I got into it!

“Once you start, of course [boxing] you realize it’s far from it. This is the highest level in the sport and not everyone can have it. I just started liking it and I loved it. I just wanted to continue boxing whether I made it or not.

Denzel, now in his delayed teens and early twenties, not only liked science, he was good at it. Often praised by his peers, this motivated Bentley to pursue the career of his dreams.

“I was told I was good at it. Every time I sparred with someone they asked how many fights I had and they said, “You’re good for two fighters” and stuff like that, so I was always good in terms of the level of experience I got. had.

“I think I really wanted to take it seriously when I dropped out of college. I don’t remember what made me do it, but I dropped out of college because I wanted to do it.

“I think it was because I just watched it more and I just thought I wanted to be there, on the gigantic stage. I just thought, “I’m going to drop everything I’m doing and stick to boxing and grinding it out.”

“I studied sports science but dropped out to pursue boxing.”

Battersea may not be synonymous with boxing, but it has had links with the sport for years. Just a few years ago, the likes of David Haye and George Groves trained at the former McGuigan’s Gym location.

Go back even further and you’ll see Howard Eastman working on the roads around Battersea. The 26-year-old recently began comparing himself to Eastman, a figure he admitted he had no idea about until recently.

Denzel now praises the rise of boxing in his area and credits Carney’s Community for what it does for the community.

“They are very helpful, man. Children are energetic and need something to burn off their energy.

“Youth clubs are no longer as popular as those where there are sessions that everyone wants to take part in, boys and girls, they just want to burn some energy instead of just going to school and coming home so they don’t just bored or hanging around outside for no reason.

The determining factors for Denzel’s success are the time and strenuous work put in and continue to be put in by his parents, especially his mother, whom he considers his inspiration.

“She puts in a lot of work, she did a lot to make us the people we are today. Of course, my dad is still around, but he lives in Ghana, he also works there. They both do their best to make sure that all four of us are good, decent people.

“I saw how strenuous they worked, how strenuous they worked, and they didn’t bring me here to waste opportunities. They weren’t born here like me, the opportunities were different, especially at the time they were born.

“Now we were born in a place where everything is at your fingertips, if you put in the work you can go out there and work your ass off and it will be easier than they had to work strenuous to get it, so I can” I don’t get any slack because it’s it’s a kick in the balls for them to do all this and I have no intention of pursuing him [my goals]”

His next goal is to win the Commonwealth title and add to the British middleweight belt he already holds. This Saturday night’s opponent will be Felix Cash, who is another undefeated fighter crossing enemy lines to fight on the Queensberry Promotions show.

“I’m joyful to get this fight, I’m joyful to have another title on the line, I’m joyful to get another belt. It’s bigger than [Mark] Heffron fights and it takes me to another level.

“It helps me get recognition. All the strenuous work I had put in was finally noticed and it was finally paying off.”

After whispers that the Matchroom fighter might have chosen a different route, there were doubts whether this fight would happen, but now we are here and the fight will take place at the York Hall in Bethnal Green.

“No, honestly, I didn’t think it would happen, but it did, so I can’t complain. I thought they would go the European route, but Felix said he wanted to be British champion and wanted to take that route to keep the game fair for him.

“But it might have been a situation where they couldn’t get it [European title] fight for the line and it was still an option, but either way I don’t care how the fight happened, as long as it’s going on and it’s happening, I’m joyful with it. It’s time to shake things up, man.

A powered Bentley can accelerate from 0-60 in the blink of an eye and Denzel will be keen to take on Cash, who has defended his Commonwealth title twice, with the engine full of petrol and there will be no backing down.