Bentley and Morrison will square off two years after the pair were initially supposed to fight, writes Matt Bozeat
BATTERSEA boxer Denzel Bentley begins his second reign as British Middleweight Champion with a defense against Marcus Morrison at York Hall on Friday night. BT Sport televised.
This is a fight that was first brought up a couple of years ago. Queensberry planned to pair Bentley with Morrison at the first post-lockdown show, at the BT Sport studios in July 2020.
Bentley was 12-0 at the time, while Morrison looked to build on his shock victory over former European champion Emanuele Blandamura in Italy.
“I thought the fight was happening and then I ended up fighting Mick Hall,” said Bentley, who fights out of the Peacock gym in Epping. “They didn’t see the value of the fight at the time, but he needs this fight now.”
Fast-forward two years and Bentley is British champion, while Morrison has lost two of his last four, albeit at a good level.
The 29-year-old Mancunian, though well beaten on points, had his moments in a 10-round points loss to Chris Eubank Jnr and was knocked out in four when he moved up to 168 pounds to face Zach Parker in Birmingham last November.
Physically, Morrison seemed to be a match for Parker, but he couldn’t take body shots from the Derbyshire switch-hitter and was brought down three times before the end.
Bentley boxed on the same show, unraveling Black Country’s willing left hook, Sam Evans, in the third.
That was his first fight since losing in three rounds to Commonwealth champion Felix Cash last April, a loss that ended Bentley’s five-month reign as British champion.
The 27-year-old won the belt in May, beating Luton’s Linus Udofia in a split vote after a battle that is sure to appear on national Fight of the Year lists in a few months. The scores were 115-113, 116-112 and 114-115.
Bentley overcame several close rounds by finishing well and clearly won a curious ending. Udofia seemed to spend the last three minutes, as if he felt that he was clearly ahead.
In reality, Bentley was two cards up and would have won more clearly had the referee not overlooked Udofia’s knee hitting the canvas in the eighth after the Londoner hit him on the chin with a right hand. That’s Bentley’s danger shot and responsible for most of his 10 wins in two rounds.
Bentley is loose through the shoulders, has good reflexes and that right hand counter is quick, but at times he seems to have no ring awareness. He puts himself in dangerous positions and blames occasional loses of concentration for that.
The only blemishes on his 16-1-1 record are a draw with Mark Heffron (although he won the return emphatically), now a British and Commonwealth champion at 168 pounds, and the loss to Cash, who was huge in weight and continuous. to force a stoppage after calling Bentley early.
Morrison has had an up-and-down career. He was nicely beaten by Jason Welborn in what was supposed to be a decisive fight, then stunned by Tyan Booth and Alistair Warren. Then, when it looked like the Joe Gallagher-trained Morrison was going nowhere, he scored his career-best victory over former European champion Blandamura.
The Italian was surely up after seven rounds before Morrison hurt him in the eighth and undid him in the next.
That was the best we’ve seen from Morrison in a 25-5 pro career that began in 2014.
Gallagher says Morrison “has performed well on the big stage,” including against Eubank last May. Every time Eubank looked to jump through the gears and force the stoppage, Morrison went with him.
There was a good exchange in the last one when Eubank looked for the end of the exclamation point and sent a left hook that made him give ground. But Morrison won two rounds on all three cards.
Bentley says that given Morrison’s recent form, he is “lucky” to get this shot at the British title. He added that Morrison “has had some good wins, he’s got a name and he tries all the time, he doesn’t really back down and get into the shell of it.”
We agree that Morrison will boost Bentley, but we don’t feel like dethroning the champion. We’re going for Bentley for points.
The undercard is standard ticket-seller/prospect vs. journeyman, though up-and-coming Ellis Zorro, 14-0 (6), will look to win May’s Boxxer cruiserweight tournament when he takes on the rugged and ever-ambitious Dec Spelman, 18-5. (9), more than eight. Zorro is the choice to win on points.
THE VERDICT: Morrison doesn’t deserve the opportunity, but he will certainly give it his all.
