Denzel Bentley is calling on Zuffa Boxing to steer him straight back toward middleweight championship hardware. Giving up his WBO belt came as the direct cost of facing Shane Mosley Jr. instead of mandatory challenger Yoenli Hernandez.

With that bout behind him, Bentley is targeting two stablemates who hold the remaining pieces of the division: IBF champion Aaron McKenna and WBC titlist Carlos Adames.

Scoring a knockdown over Mosley helped Bentley secure a close unanimous decision during his promotional debut. The result delivered a recognizable name for his record, yet the real payoff hinges entirely on what Zuffa delivers next. Stepping straight into a voluntary defense allows Bentley to cash in on that narrow win without slogging through another eliminator. Zuffa controls all three fighters internally, leaving promotional squabbles out of the equation once sanctioning bodies give their blessing.

Bentley told The Ring that McKenna or Adames are the targets. He wants whichever man keeps their title next. “I think McKenna or Adames because they are the ones with the titles. I want to fight one of those two next. Next year, either one of those two; they’ve both got their belts. Whoever keeps their strap, I want them next.”

A clash with McKenna appears simpler to schedule. The newly crowned champion has yet to lock in his first defense, and Bentley publicly offered to travel across the Irish Sea. That willingness hands Zuffa an easy sell for a stadium or arena defense in Ireland against a proven puncher. McKenna cannot afford to march forward upright against someone who sits down on short counter hooks with sudden authority. If McKenna uses his jab and relentless output to keep Bentley backing up, those counterpunching lanes vanish quickly over twelve rounds.

Taking on Adames is asking for a beating. Adames has real power, switches stances smoothly, and loves tearing into guys who linger in mid-range. Bentley could get caught along the ropes, and once Adames starts letting fly with those heavy combinations, it turns into a short night.

Dodging Yoenli Hernandez was pure self-preservation. Hernandez is a sharp power-punching Cuban amateur gold medalist who would have put Bentley through a grueling fight for a modest purse.

Targeting McKenna makes complete sense if they want to stay on the path of least resistance: McKenna is tall, fights upright, and walks into range with his chin up. He throws good volume, but he lacks the one-punch explosiveness to terrify Bentley. Bentley can sit down, wait for McKenna to march forward, and drop those short left hooks that stunned Mosley. If Bentley wants a belt he actually has a puncher’s chance of taking, McKenna is the target.

The sanctioning body optics are an absolute circus. Bentley literally just treated a world title like a disposable bargaining chip. When a fighter turns his nose up at an ordered mandatory defense to chase an off-brand debut bout, why should the IBF or WBC reward him with immediate voluntary status?

Sanctioning bodies care about sanctioning fees, but they also hate champions who abandon obligations the second a tough Cuban contender turns up. Putting Bentley in with McKenna signals to the entire sport that mandatories mean nothing. If Bentley wins the IBF strap, there is zero guarantee he stays in line for their mandatory either. He has already shown he would rather drop a belt and wander off than face a high-risk challenger.

Zuffa might want to push Bentley into McKenna’s first defense because it sells well in the UK and Ireland, but it completely undermines the legitimacy of the rankings. Bentley’s handlers will inevitably steer him away from Adames, but handing him an immediate shortcut to McKenna makes a mockery of the system.