BENTLEY BACK ON THE BRITISH BEAT – JOYCE-ZHANG UNDERCARD TAKES SHAPE

DENZEL BENTLEY WILL return to British title business when he defends his middleweight belt against Kieran Smith on the undercard of the Joe Joyce-Zhilei Zhang heavyweight showdown at the Copper Box Arena on April 15, live on BT Sport.

Peacock Gym puncher Bentley (17-2-1, 14) is back fighting in London after his unsuccessful WBO world title tilt against Janibek Alimkhanuly in November, having won back his Lonsdale belt in a vacant title battle against Linus Udofia. He then made an emphatic defence against Marcus Morrison before heading over to Las Vegas to take on the formidable Kazakh.

Smith (18-1, 7), of Scotland, is now operating at middleweight after forging a productive career at super welterweight that saw him become WBC International Silver champion and make two successful defences, before coming to a conclusion in April 2021 when he was stopped by Troy Williamson.

Commonwealth super bantamweight champion Dennis McCann (14-0, 8) will make a first defence of the title he won via defeating Joe Ham last time out, with his Queensberry iBox Gym teammate Sam Noakes (10-0, 10) defending his WBC International Silver and Commonwealth lightweight titles.

McCann made it a title treble at The O2 in November, with the 22-year-old Menace having won the WBC International Silver featherweight championship and the WBO Youth super bantamweight title in his previous two fights, beating James Beech Jr and Charles Tondo respectively.
Noakes added the Commonwealth to his WBC International Silver title on the same show at The O2, bringing his professional tally up to a perfect 10 wins, with 10 KOs.

Up-and-coming Queensberry youngster Sonny Liston Ali (5-0) is in a six-round super lightweight bout and Dagenham super welterweight Joel Kodua (1-0) fights over four.

“A British middleweight title fight is the perfect foil for the big heavyweight collision between Joe and Big Bang Zhang and this will be a strong undercard at the Copper Box, with a little bit more to reveal next week,” said promoter Frank Warren.

“Denzel Bentley proved himself as a world level performer over in Las Vegas against Janibek, a man who the other middleweights wouldn’t go near. If Denzel had gone on the attack a bit sooner it could have been a different outcome.

“He can return to the top table and an upside for him – and us – is that he can maintain his momentum in meaningful British title fights, but Kieran Smith fully intends to knock him off-course.

“Dennis McCann and Sam Noakes are both fully up and running in the title-winning business and I am looking forward to seeing them back in action in title defences ahead of a big year for them both.

“There will be at least one more exciting addition to the card ahead of the tickets going on sale on Wednesday 15th February. Stay tuned for that.”

Tickets for the showdown between Joyce and Zhang on 15 April at the Copper Box Arena on Saturday, 15 April go on sale at 11am on Wednesday, 15 February from ticketmaster.co.uk.

Fans are encouraged to sign-up for Ticket Alerts to receive the ticket link directly to their inbox ahead of tickets going on sale.


Edwards Decisions Mthalane; Wins Flyweight Title

Sunny Edwards outboxed longtime longtime champion Moruti Mthalne to capture the IBF Flyweight championship at York Hall in London, England.

Edwards landed 148 of 907 punches; Mthalane was 106 of 694.

Edwards, 111.3 lbs of England won by scores of 120-108, 118-111 and 115-113 and is now 16-0. Mthalane, 119. lbs of South Africa is 39-3.

Conlan wins Majority Decision over Baluta

Michael Conlan remained undefeated with a 12-round majority decison over Ionut Baluta in a super bantamweight fight.

Conlan landed 170 of 469 punches; Baluta was 97 of 782.

Conlan, 121.9 lbs of Dublin, Ireland won by scores of 117-112, 115-114 and 114-114 and is now 15-0.. Baluta 122 lbs of Madrid, SPA is 14-3.

Conlan said, “Baluta is a tough character, tougher than I thought. And he showed it in his last two performances. He’s as game as they come. But he was missing tons of punches, so I wasn’t really worried. But when {the first scorecard read} was a draw, I was like, ‘What’s going on here?’
 
“It was a good fight, good preparation for what’s to come.
 
“I’ll stay active. I’ll fight in August anyway, and I’ll get straight back in the gym.”

Troy Williamson stopped Kieran Smith in round six of a scheduled 12-round junior middleweight bout.

In round six, Williamson landed a a hard combination that put Smith down and out at 1:28. Smith was down for several minutes, but was able to get to his feet.

Williamson, 153 lbs is now 16-0-1 with 12 knockouts. Smith, 153.4 lbs of Scotland is 16-1.

Ryan Garner won a six-round decision over Jordan Ellison in a junior welterweight bout.

Garner was bleeding from his nose in round three.

Garner, 136.75 lbs of Southhampton, UK won by a 60-54 score and is now 10-0/ Jordan Ellison 141 lbs is 11-33-2.

Joshua Frankham won a four-round decision over Naeem Ali a junior middleweight bout.

Frankham, 152.9 lbs won by a 40-36 score and is now 3-0. Ali, 156.2 lbs is a robust 2-67-1.