Denzel Bentley is challenging Gustavo Olivieri to explain what changed after claiming the WBO president publicly agreed to let him make a voluntary defense before facing mandatory challenger Yoenli Hernandez next year.

Bentley’s response follows Olivieri’s explanation that the organization never received a formal petition to approve the proposed fight against Shane Mosley Jr. The dispute leaves two different accounts of how Bentley’s planned voluntary defense reached this point.

“Whether I had an opponent or not this guy agreed and tweeted I get a voluntary defence before the end of the year then fight yo-yo next year which I was happy to do so the question everyone needs to ask is what changed,” Bentley wrote on X.

That is the question Bentley wants answered. His argument is that Olivieri had already accepted the sequence: a voluntary before the end of 2026, followed by Hernandez in 2027.

Olivieri, speaking to Tru School Sports, described a process that still required formal approval.

“We never received a formal petition. From Zuffa, from team Bentley, or from team Mosley for this particular fight.”

The WBO president added that every championship defense requires the approval of its championship committee, whether the opponent is a mandatory challenger or a voluntary selection.

According to Olivieri, Bentley had no date, opponent, or venue when the mandatory obligation needed to be addressed. Hernandez had been the designated challenger since July, and his team submitted a petition seeking enforcement.

Bentley is scheduled to face Mosley on November 7 in London, but the WBO rejected his appeal to take a voluntary defense and instructed him to commit to Hernandez. sports.yahoo.com

The wording of Olivieri’s earlier post is therefore crucial. An explicit agreement allowing Bentley to fight a voluntary before Hernandez would give the British fighter a reasonable basis to question the subsequent ruling. Permission dependent on committee approval would leave Bentley’s team responsible for completing that process.

A public conversation with the president and formal authorization from the championship committee may be separate steps. Bentley’s latest response does not explain whether his team submitted the details needed to secure that authorization.

Hernandez has his own interests to protect. He pursued his mandatory opportunity and asked the WBO to enforce it. Accepting Bentley’s preferred timetable would require him to wait while the champion takes another fight.

Bentley says he was willing to face Hernandez next year. The disagreement is over whether he had permission to take another opponent first—and whether Olivieri’s earlier words support the permission Bentley believes he received.