Michael Bentt

Sweden–USA Duals (heavyweight), Stockholm, Sweden, January 1984:

Sweden–USA Duals (heavyweight), Gothenburg, Sweden, January 1984:

FRG–USA Duals (heavyweight), Gothenburg, Sweden, January 1984:

USA–Canada Duals (heavyweight), Orlando, Florida, December 1984:

USA–South Korea Duals (heavyweight), Las Vegas, Nevada, March 1985:

USA–USSR Duals (heavyweight), Orlando, Florida, March 1987:

United States National Championships (heavyweight), Buffalo, New York, March–April 1987:

Bentt is cited by jazz and film composer, Terence Blanchard, as having provided the inspiration for his Opera Theatre Of St.Louis' 2013 production of 'Champion'. This play is based on the real life ring fights and subsequent death of Benny 'Kid' Paret at the hands of Emile Griffith, a bisexual boxer in 1962. Over the years while training Blanchard in boxing, Bentt, would share with him the transcendent and tragic elements that befell the two fighters.

Bentt served as a faculty member and Co-Teacher for the 'Anna Deavere Smith Project: Empathy and Acting' at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco during 2013.

In the winter of 2011 and summer of 2012 Bentt directed the critically received off-Broadway production of 'Kid Shamrock', a play about the struggles, triumphs, demons and redemption of 1970s Long Island New York middleweight contender 'Irish' Bobby Cassidy Sr.

In 2006, he had an on camera audition in Puerto Rico as part of HBO World Championship Boxing's search for an expert boxing commentator for the network‘s newest boxing segment. Eventually the candidates were narrowed down to Bentt and the then recently retired former Heavyweight Champion, Lennox Lewis.

In 2003, he was the first actor-in-residence at Northampton Community College in Pennsylvania, where he played the title role in 'Othello'.

As an actor, Bentt is best known for co-starring as Sonny Liston in the 2001 film Ali, and as Biggis/El Plaga in the 2005 film State Property 2. He is featured in the first episode of the 2019 American web television documentary series Losers.

In October 1993, Bentt caused a huge upset with a ninety seven second first round knockout of Tommy Morrison to capture the WBO heavyweight championship. The American-based boxer lost his WBO belt to Herbie Hide at The Den, Bermondsey, United Kingdom, in 1994. The fight would be his last after being rushed to the hospital and told he could never fight again. Bentt had suffered brain injuries in the loss, and although the injuries did not negatively affect the quality of his thoughts or mental sharpness, it was feared that future impacts to the head could result in permanent long-term injury or even death.

For a two-year period in the early 1990s served as chief sparring partner for then world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield.

As both his mother and father are Jamaican citizens, he won the right to fight on the Jamaican Olympic Boxing Team after stopping the island nation's top amateur heavyweights in the 1988 Jamaican Olympic Trials. However, when confronted with the provision that he would have to relinquish his United States citizenship in order to accompany the Jamaican team to Seoul, he refused. Bentt is regarded as the most decorated boxer in the history of American amateur boxing never to have competed on a United States Olympic boxing team.

Although he was the officially selected team alternate at 201 lbs Bentt declined to serve as an alternate on the 1988 Olympic Boxing Team.

Eastern Olympic Trials (heavyweight), Fayetteville, North Carolina, June 1988:

Olympic Trials (heavyweight), Concord Pavilion, Concord, California, July 1988:

Olympic Box-offs (heavyweight), Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, July 1988:

U.S. Olympic Festival (heavyweight), Raleigh, North Carolina, July 1987:

Pan Am Box-offs (heavyweight), International Center of the Broadmoor, Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 1987:

Pan American Games (heavyweight), Indianapolis, Indiana, August 1987:

North American Championships (heavyweight), Toronto, Canada, August 1987:

One of the most decorated amateur boxers in US history, Bentt won four New York City Golden Gloves titles, five United States Amateur Boxing Championships and three (New York State) Empire State Games gold medals. After having won the bronze medal at the 1986 World Amateur Boxing Championships and the 1987 Pan American Games he placed a controversial second-place finish at the 1988 United States Olympic Trials and Box-off's to the Seoul Olympics eventual Gold Medalist, Ray Mercer. Sport writers frequently misspelled his second name, writing "Bent" or "Bennet" instead of "Bentt," and after he defeated Tommy Morrison, HBO's host Larry Merchant ironized in a way that he's finally have to add the third "T" to his name.

Bentt counts avenging an earlier defeat, suffered at the hands of, then, three-time USSR World Amateur Heavyweight Champion, Alexandr Yagubkin, at the 1986 World Championships in Reno, Nevada as one of his most precious moments. Before the loss to Bentt, Yagubkin had been victorious over every American heavyweight he encountered during a three-year period. This included a Moscow decision-win over Bentt's older brother Winston, himself a member of the United States National Team. Domestically Bentt went undefeated for a four-year period before being denied an Olympic team berth at the 1988 United States Olympic Trials.

United States National Championships (heavyweight), Beaumont, Texas, April 1986:

World Champ Box-offs (heavyweight), Caesars Tahoe, Stateline, Nevada, April 1986:

World Championships (heavyweight), Sparks Convention Center, Reno, Nevada, May 1986:

Goodwill Games (heavyweight), Moscow, Soviet Union, July 1986:

Though he didn't compete at the 1985 AAU National Championships, deciding to take some time off after losing a decision to Alexandr Yagubkin of the Soviet Union in the semifinals of the World Cup, he was the recipient of the 1985 Sugar Ray Robinson Award as the most outstanding boxer in the New York Golden Gloves tournament that year (among the 85' class of Golden Gloves champions were future professional champions Riddick Bowe, Kevin Kelly and Junior Jones). Bentt was also a three time member of the United States All-American Amateur Boxing Team. After winning the Pan American Box-offs he was ranked #1 U.S. amateur heavyweight by the United States Amateur Boxing Federation.

U.S. National Sports Festival (heavyweight), Baton Rouge, Louisiana, August 1985:

North American Championships (heavyweight), Beaumont, Texas, August 1985:

World Cup (heavyweight), Seoul, South Korea, November 1985:

United States National Championships (heavyweight), Indianapolis, Indiana, November 1984:

AAU Region #2 Championships (heavyweight), Radisson Hotel, Wilmington, Delaware, October 1983:

His other amateur titles included the 1981 New York City Police Athletic League Champion, 1980 NYC Kids Gloves Champion, Empire State Games Heavyweight Champion (1982, 1983, 1984). He was a three-time selected member of the United States All-American National Boxing Team (1985, 1986, 1987), captain of the 1986 United States Goodwill Games Boxing Team and the 1987 United States Pan American Games Boxing Team. He was a bronze medalist in each of those competitions. At the Pan American semifinals and North American finals he faced Félix Savón, to whom he lost by unanimous decision twice in nine days, cutting his way to the 1987 World Cup in Belgrade. He also received the bronze medal at the 1985 World Amateur Championships in Seoul, South Korea and the gold medal at the 1985 North American Championship in Beaumont, Texas.

Michael Bentt (born September 4, 1964) is a British-American film and television actor, and retired professional boxer who competed from 1989 to 1994. Of Jamaican heritage, he was born in East Dulwich, London, but raised in the Cambria Heights section of Queens in New York City. Bentt won the WBO heavyweight title from Tommy Morrison in 1993, losing the title in his first defense in 1994 to Herbie Hide. As an amateur he won bronze medals at the 1986 World Championships and 1987 Pan American Games.