The January circular from the British Boxing Board of Control was released on Thursday and, as is the norm, it brought together some potentially fascinating bouts.
Deion Jumah vs Chris Billam-Smith, Ted Cheeseman vs JJ Metcalf and Chris Jenkins vs Ekow Essuman were a few fights that will happen for the British cruiserweight, super-welterweight and welterweight titles respectively. There was one other, however, that caught the eye.
The Board decided to put British middleweight champion Denzel Bentley vs the Commonwealth champion Felix Cash out to purse bids with the contest to take place by the end of June. Cash is scheduled to return to action on April 10 as part of the Conor Benn-Samuel Vargas undercard. His opponent is still to be announced.
One stumbling block to the fight is the cross-promoter rivalry between Frank Warren (who promotes Bentley) and Eddie Hearn (who promotes Cash). And while the fight goes to the highest bidder that is still no guarantee that it will happen. Bentley though has told Boxing Social he is willing to face Cash in the first defence of his Lonsdale Belt, which he won last November against Mark Heffron (WRTD4) after their September draw.
“I think it can be made,” said Bentley (14-0-1, 12 KOs). “It’s just a matter of who wins the purse bids but I’m not vacating the British title, so it has to get made on my side.
“I’m definitely interested in it. I think it’s a good fight and [it] pushes me on to bigger things.”
Bentley, 25, is unbeaten in 15 fights while the 27-year-old Cash is undefeated in 13 (with 9 KOs). Last time out in August, Cash halted former world title challenger Jason Welborn in five during the Matchroom Fight Camp series.