By Terence Dooley
Steven Bendall is hoping to put his February points defeat to Darren McDermott behind him by relocating to the super-middleweight division. Bendall – who handed Paul Smith his first professional defeat in 2008 – feels that he can fight the winner of the upcoming Tony Quigley-Paul Smith British title showdown.
Poole’s Bendall has blown hot and cold throughout his career. Bendall has won Area and Intercontinental titles but he feels that he is good enough to net the British belt. Bendall told the Daily Echo that a step up in weight could be just the tonic.
“I did say I would retire before my last fight if I lost because of my age and that sort of thing,” he explained.
“What people don’t realise though is I hadn’t fought for six months, and for three of those months I hadn’t trained because of my broken foot. The week after I got back into training I was put in a situation by Frank Warren that I had only eight weeks to go into a big fight.”
He continued: “That adversely affected me, but with the fight being so close, I will go up a weight and give it another go. I’m still number five in the country so I would like to fight the winner of Smith and Quigley. We’ve decided to step up because losing the last few pounds to meet the middleweight category is making me flat.”
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