Denzel Bentley may be forced to wait even longer for his final eliminator with Endry Saavedra.

The pair have been instructed by the WBO to face each other with the winner then in line to fight the sanctioning body's middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly next.

In July, the WBO confirmed that an agreement had been reached for the fight to take place on a Queensberry Promotions card at some point this month and it had initially been penciled in for a spot on the October 25 show headlined by Joseph Parker against Fabio Wardley.

At one point the fight was even listed on Boxrec.com. It seemed that Bentley (21-3-1, 17 KOs) had finally secured his first fight of the year having been meticulously training since January.

But with less than three weeks to go until that date, the fight between Bentley and Venezuelan puncher Saavedra (17-1-1, 14 KOs) is still yet to be formally announced.

Now Warren has confirmed that it might not land on that date after all.

“It may not be on that one, no” Warren told The Ring. “We are not sure yet but it may not be on October 25. It may get pushed back. We are working on that now.”

Bentley is No. 1 with the WBO while Saavedra occupies the No. 2 position. Janibek, meanwhile, currently holds both the WBO and IBF middleweight titles and it has been reported that a unification with WBA champion Erislandy Lara is on the verge of being finalised for December.

Janibek has already beaten Bentley once, when he secured a unanimous decision victory over the Londoner at Palms Casino, Las Vegas in November 2022. Since then, Bentley has stealthily climbed back up the WBO ranks and is now just one win away from a second crack at the undefeated Kazakh.

Warren added: “We've been trying to make that Janibek return for him for a long, long time now. We will see what happens. Janibek has a fight coming up now, so after that he’s going to have to fight his mandatory, and Denzel will be in a position where he's got to fight him.”

Bentley has not boxed since December 7, when he beat Brad Pauls on points to claim the British and European middleweight titles which he has since vacated in pursuit of a world title opportunity.