In December, Alimkhanuly (17-0, 12 KOs) had his scheduled unification fight with WBA champion Erislandy Lara canceled at the last minute after a pre-fight VADA test flagged an adverse finding for the banned substance meldonium.

While the IBF stripped the 33-year-old Kazakh of his title, the WBO decided to retroactively suspend him for a year.

In April, Bentley (22-3-1, 18 KOs) stopped Venezuela’s heavy-handed Endry Saavedra in the seventh round of a quality battle for the governing body's interim title.

“We spoke to the WBO and they they have no intentions of stripping him. When his ban is up, they've asked him to fight me on his first fight back,” The Ring’s No. 10 middleweight told talkSPORT.

Bentley has wanted a rematch with Alimkhanuly ever since he lost a unanimous decision to him in November 2022.

It looks increasingly likely that the 31-year-old Londoner will eventually get his wish, but he confirmed that he wants to stay busy and fight rather than waiting for months before a rematch can even be negotiated.

Although there have been rumors about him fighting former WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith, or British titleholder George Liddard, he still doesn’t have a date in his diary.

The middleweight division has been on a slow simmer for some time.

The Ring title lies vacant and neither Lara nor WBC titleholder Carlos Adames has fights scheduled. Adames even stated his intention to step up to 168 pounds after comfortably outpointing Austin Williams in March.

Things do begin to move again in early August when The Ring’s No. 6 middleweight Aaron McKenna fights Italy’s fifth-ranked Etinosa Oliha for the vacant IBF title.

Bentley would love to inject some life into the division and face any of the middleweight champions but accepts that he will have to finish his business with Alimkhanuly before that becomes a realistic possibility.

He may understand the situation he finds himself in, but that doesn’t mean he agrees with it.

“I'd love to. If it was down to me, I definitely would with some of the other champions that could be available but it's not down to me. It’s if they would want to fight for the interim title,” Bentley said.

“But I just think it's a bit dumb, to be honest. You put the whole division on hold because someone's broken the law and he's not really not being correctly punished for it. So now, every other middleweight in the world has to wait until he serves his ban. We're all being punished with him basically. So no one can earn big money or fight for a world title or a full world title until he's finished doing his sentence, which is kind of dumb.”