Frank Warren exclusive: Fury vs Joshua update, Bentley vs Morrison preview

Friday night is a great opportunity for Denzel Bentley to continue stamping his mark as one of the best middleweights in the country right now.

We want Denzel to go out there and really put on a show against Marcus Morrison and if he does, there are some big, big fights out there for him.

From our stable’s perspective we would love to set Denzel up in a big domestic clash against Hamzah Sheeraz next year, provided they both keep doing what I expect them to keep doing. We could be in a great position where we’ve got a really good bust-up between two top British fighters to find out who is the best boxer in the East End!

We’ve got so much coming up to be excited about, so many great fighters who’ve put themselves in good positions over the past few months. It’s a testament to the hard work they’ve put in inside the ring and our team who have given them the right fights at the right time.

Friday night, for example, is a big show for us and it’s a big opportunity for Denzel. These are the type of nights that that you need, you have to build from them. We want to be putting on big arena shows all the time, but these fighters need building and learning on shows like this one at York Hall. They’re such an important part of the process in building the stars of the future.

Providing he wins, if we can get Denzel out again one more time before the end of the year, we would love to do that. If not, maybe we see him again at the turn of the new year – but the plan for him is keep building towards that big one against Sheeraz at some point in early 2023. I really do like that fight.

Marcus Morrison has only lost against Chris Eubank Jr when he’s been fighting at middleweight over the last few years and he took that fight to the scorecards, so it’s a great opportunity for us to use that performance as a yardstick to see where Denzel is at.

Marcus always comes to fight and I think he’s going to push Denzel. If Denzel wants to go where we think he can go then he needs to deal with this fight and do it in style, that’s what we want from this fight.

Andrew Cain is back out on Friday night too and he’s someone I’m really a big fan of.

Paul Stevenson has done a brilliant job up there with his stable in Liverpool, he’s got some brilliant fighters coming through like Nick Ball and Bradley Strand – but Cain is a really good prospect.

His style is so exciting, he always comes to put on a show. He’s all-action. I know it sounds stupid but the fighters coming out that gym in Liverpool, they all have this early Mike Tyson style attitude about them. They come in and they just steamroll their opponents. That’s what Cain reminds me of.

You have these cities like Liverpool, like Belfast, like Sheffield, that seem to consistently produce these top-class fighters. They’re tough, working-class cities. What’s the choice for these kids? They’re not going to be tennis stars or golfers because they don’t get those opportunities, so they play football or they box.

Fury vs AJ on the right track!

Things are moving along nicely in talks for Tyson Fury to fight Anthony Joshua. The contracts have been sent today [Thursday] so it’s up to them now to look at them and we go from there.

I’m 90% sure this happens now.

A lot of the talk so far seems to have focused on Joshua ‘stepping up’ to take this fight but if anything, Tyson has thrown him a lifeline. He didn’t have to do this. But Joshua is taking it – and he should do that.

Really, we wanted to go straight into the Oleksandr Usyk fight and Usyk said he wanted to fight Tyson but then came out and said he wouldn’t be ready until next year. Tyson wants to fight this year and so he said, ‘let’s do the Joshua fight’. He wanted to get this fight done.

Now Usyk is saying Tyson is ducking him. He just wants to stay busy, that’s all! It was a stupid comment from Usyk considering he himself said he wouldn’t be ready this year!