Denzel Bentley has been elevated to full WBO middleweight champion as Janibek Alimkhanuly relinquished his title and requested ranking consideration at 168 pounds.
- London native Bentley (22-3-1, 18 KOs) initially claimed the interim WBO 160-pound title in April with a seventh-round TKO victory over Endry Saavedra (17-2-1, 14 KOs) on the Wilder vs Chisora undercard.
- Kazakhstan’s former two-belt unified middleweight champion Alimkhanuly (17-0, 12 KOs), who was stripped of his IBF title in March due to violations, recently voluntarily relinquished his WBO belt.
According to the “Official Resolution” shared by the World Boxing Organization (WBO) on social media, Alimkhanuly also requested super middleweight ranking consideration.
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Janibek and Bentley previously faced one another in November 2022 in Las Vegas, where Alimkhanuly earned a unanimous decision victory to retain the WBO middleweight title.
- The WBO also noted that unbeaten Cuban Yoeneli Hernandez (10-0, 9 KOs) is the mandatory challenger in the middleweight division and that no mandatory middleweight title defense has taken place in more than two years.
Whether Bentley’s first title defense will be mandatory or voluntary is set to be determined in a future ruling.
Hernandez won his previous bout in March by fourth-round TKO over Terrell Gausha to claim the NABO middleweight title.