Mark Heffron and Denzel Bentley set for rematch after draw

The Oldham favourite was down in the second round but fought on the front foot in the meeting for the IBF European middleweight title at York Hall.

In a rare occurrence, after 10 back-and-forth rounds live on BT Sport all three judges scored the contest 95-95.

Talk has immediately turned to a rematch, with a deal already finalised according to Heffron’s manager Kevin Maree.

Heffron, however, thinks it should already be case closed and he should have inflicted a first defeat on the unbeaten Bentley in what was also an eliminator for the British title.

It was a first draw for the 28-year-old in a 27-fight record that includes 19 knockouts.

“I 100 per cent think I won that fight,” Heffron told BT Sport post-fight.

“The round he won was the round where he caught me. I outworked him in every round. He caught me with the odd jab, that was it. Let’s do the rematch.”

Naturally, Bentley, who had won all 13 of his fights with 11 stoppages going into the fight, thought he had done enough to get the verdict, especially after sending Heffron to the canvas early in proceedings.

“I thought I’d won it,” the 25-year-old Londoner said.

“It was my first time doing 10 rounds and I fell asleep a little bit in the middle of the fight and he managed to pick up the pace a little bit.

“Then I think I managed to pull it back towards the end and thought the knockdown would have had me winning it by a point or two.

“I thought I landed the cleaner shots and moved when I needed to.”