At the start of the 2015/16 season, Leicester City were seen as the favourites to finish rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table. They were priced at 5,000-1 to actually top it.
The rank outsiders quickly became the season’s feel-good story, playing in cavalier fashion and turning over big team after big team as they climbed to first place.
It wasn’t until the season reached its final quarter that it began to dawn on English football’s traditional big names that they had badly underestimated them.
By then Leicester had their teeth into the challenge and were playing with unshakeable belief and momentum. While the bigger teams crumbled under the pressure and expectation, they went about their work with a smile on their faces and wound up winning the title by a massive ten points, leaving giants like Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham in their wake.
Tyler Denny, 19-2-3 (1 KO), isn’t a 5,000-1 outsider to beat Hamzah Sheeraz, 20-0 (16 KOs), at Wembley Stadium on September 21 but, three years ago, a bookmaker would have given some pretty favourable odds on the 33-year-old European middleweight champion reaching this stage.
Sheeraz has been groomed for success and looked sensational when stopping Austin “Ammo” Williams in June, but Denny has quietly put together a tremendous run and is rolling into the fight on the back of a career-best stoppage of Felix Cash. He wasn’t supposed to be here but, suddenly, the perennial underdog poses an extremely serious threat to the bigger, well-established name.
“It’s a nice story but I want to carry this story on,” Denny told Queensberry Promotions. “On September 21 it carries on
“I am imagining it. Sometimes I don’t take it all in. This, I am going to. It’s all about winning for me. As much as it’s Wembley Stadium, I’d rather fight in Walsall Town Hall if it meant that I was going to win. It’s all about winning for me. That’s the main goal.
“As much as it’s a fairytale story, If I actually thought I had no chance, I’m not gonna [take it]. I know it’s going to be a hard fight but I genuinely believe I’m going to win and upset a lot of people but I’m used to that now. Life goes on.”
Although the scale of the occasion and event will be unique to most of the fighters competing at Wembley, the circumstances surrounding the fight itself aren’t alien to Denny at all. Time and time again he has found himself cast as the opponent; time and time again he has emerged victorious.
After a patchy start to his career, he has taken the unbeaten records of River Wilson-Bent, Brad Rea, the reigning British champion Brad Pauls, and former Lonsdale belt holder Cash. He also stopped Matteo Signani to win the European title.
Sheeraz is ranked inside the top five with every governing body and is widely regarded as the fighter capable of establishing some long-term order and credibility to a low-profile 160lbs division, but Denny has begun to creep up the rankings himself and has learned not to put any ceiling on his own ambitions. Denny isn’t the type to take offence at the idea that he is destined to be just another part of Sheeraz’s story, but he is determined to prove that the 25 year old has made the biggest mistake of his life by choosing to fight him.
“You’ve gotta give give him credit where credit is due and I watched the ‘Ammo’ Williams fight and thought, ‘Wow, that was a world class performance’ but I’ve won the European title and I’ve defended it against a guy who was meant to be going on to world level so I have to put myself in that same bracket as well,” he said.
“Unfortunately for Hamzah, he’s next on the list. I’ve got a lot of respect for him but this is boxing and that’s what’s going to happen on September 21st. I’ve beaten a lot of undefeated people and I get written off against all of them. Already online I’m seeing it doesn’t go past two rounds but they said this last time. It means nothing to me. I kind of like it to be honest, proving them wrong. I don’t even go back and comment and say, ‘What were you saying?’ It’s good. I like it in my own head to think, ‘What are you saying now?’”
Sheeraz will be the bigger, younger, harder-hitting fighter on September 21 but rather than providing him with a convenient list of reasons why he can’t win, Denny prefers to see them as the classic elements of another upset victory.
“So was Brad Rea,” he said. “River Wilson-Bent was a big tall guy. He’s just another guy. He breathes the same air as me and he bleeds. That’s nothing to me. He’s undefeated? That’s nothing to me. It’s just another fight for me, just on the biggest stage possible.”
John Evans has contributed to a number of well-known publications and websites for over a decade. You can follow John on X @John_Evans79