Middleweight contender Felix Cash is the forgotten man of a division that is searching for a breakout star.

Cash was riding high after an emphatic and impressive third-round stoppage of Denzel Bentley in April 2021, but issues away from the ring slowed his momentum. 

There were several deaths in his family, divorce, hand injuries and he ultimately parted company with trainer Tony Sims. 

In the meantime, the career of the 16-0 (10 KOs) hope slowed, momentum stalled and he managed two bouts, a 10-rounder and another over eight, before things came to a grinding halt.

Cash has not boxed since defeating Celso Neves in that eight-rounder back in December 2022.

Now training under Adam Booth, Cash is ready to breathe fresh life back into his career and he returns on June 22 against European champion Tyler Denny in Birmingham.

“I can’t wait. It’s been such a long time, hasn’t it?” Cash smiled. “It’s been a long time coming. It’s been a frustrating period for me – obviously with breaking my hand last year, so I just can’t wait to get back in there and get winning these titles and get myself in some massive fights. 

“It’s been frustrating at times but now I’m back to the point where I’m training, I’ve got a fight lined up and that’s all behind me now. I’m not really as frustrated anymore because I’ve got this fight on the 22nd of June and I’m in training camp and in full flow for the fight. When I was frustrated, it was more when I was injured and I couldn’t train.”

Cash had success with Sims, winning the British and Commonwealth titles and earning a ranking with The Ring. But, after several fights and false dawns, the pair went their separate ways and Cash moved to Booth, whose gym happens to be closer to Cash’s family.

“I first went to see it we’d gel and if we get on and I’ve known [Booth-trained junior middleweight] Josh Kelly a long time, too, because obviously Josh was on the GB squad with me. So I went down there, got on with the lads, really gelled well with Adam and then we waited on some news before we announced everything,” recalled Cash.

They have been working behind closed doors for more than six months, and managed to keep things fairly quiet. Booth did excellent work with David Haye, George Groves, Andy Lee, Ryan Burnett and plenty of others, and with Cash looking to start over, he felt he could pick up some new things as he moved towards a new beginning.

“It was a bit of both,” he said, talking about the new link-up. “I’ve known Tony [Sims] a long time and a few things went wrong and went on and Adam is actually closer to where I live with my family and he’s a great trainer, too, so I moved back down here and had a fresh start and put a new spark into my career.

“I think Adam’s very good technically. He’s very good at getting you technically sound… and tactics… talking about Tyler Denny, and talking about how to go about it. He’s a good coach.”

Denny is 18-2-3 (1 KO) and unbeaten in his last seven, including a draw with River Wilson-Bent, who he outscored in the return seven months later. Denny has the kind of momentum that Cash lost, but Cash is hoping a win for the European title will trigger the gateway to big nights.

He also did not feel he needed a warm-up bout with Booth in the corner, such is his confidence in their relationship and in his own ability.

“The opportunity was still there for this European title fight and I’ve been boxing all my life, I’m more than ready and I think capable of beating Tyler Denny, so I took the fight,” Cash explained. “I didn’t want to waste any more time, doing a warm up and then the European title might slip through my fingers. Someone else might fight for it and then it’s a waiting game again. 

“I sat down with Adam and he said, ‘Listen, we’ll take this fight, get your hands on the European and then it’s bigger things after that’.”

Denny is boxing with confidence and belief, and he has Cash’s respect, even if the challenger reckons he is a superior fighter.

“Tyler Denny is a decent, solid pro,” the 31-year-old went on. “I don’t think he’s world level. He’s a decent, solid pro but I think I am definitely world level and I think there’s levels to this sport, as everyone knows, and I think I’m definitely a level above him.

“I’ve had the time off and I think I needed to come back with a fight like this, get a win, a title and I’m right back in the mix, knocking on the door for a world title or an eliminator or something like that. I want to push on and get myself in some big fights because I’ve wasted a good two years, really, even though I fought a year and a half ago, it was only an eight-rounder and I should have been in bigger fights and higher up than I am now.”

That was not always boxing politics conspiring against him. There were times, Cash admits, when he might have been his own worst enemy. 

But the Cash family was decimated by an unspeakable tragedy in late 2021 when four of Cash’s relatives were killed in a car crash while on their way to watch Tyson Fury’s trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder. Cash’s cousins, aged 44, 19, 22 and a friend, aged 18, were killed in the accident. One of them had just discovered his wife was pregnant, and another had just become a father.

Cash then went through a gruelling divorce. With the wheels flying off, Cash could have perhaps found solace in the ring, but he did not look to boxing for comfort.

“It probably would have been the best thing for me if I kept my head and kept in the gym,” he admitted, through the prism of hindsight. “It probably would have been the best thing for me, but I chose a different route, didn’t stay in the gym and it went downhill from there.” 

Now, however, Cash is reluctant to look back and is instead keen to focus on the opportunities that might become available should he get by Denny. 

The middleweight division is not the strong, talent-laden fortress it has been in past years. With some of the major stars retiring and moving up, there is a vacancy for someone to take charge at 160lbs.

“Since Golovkin and Canelo, they’ve moved up or moved on and I don’t think the world champions are as strong as they were,” Cash claimed. “They’re still good fighters, I just think it is open, a bit more open than it was.”

And while Cash is satisfied with his first fight back coming against Denny, he was nearly heading to Saudi Arabia as part of the 5 x 5 bill on June 1, pitting promoters Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren against one another.

“We were in the mix,” admitted the Matchroom middleweight. “There were talks about it, there were talks about maybe fighting [Hamzah] Sheeraz but they chose ‘Ammo’ Williams and that’s the way it went, but there were talks about it.”

Does Cash see a fight with the impressive Sheeraz in his future? 

“Most definitely. He’s got to beat ‘Ammo’ Williams first but both of them are fights down the line. We will see who wins from them two, I’ll pick up this European title fight and we will see how it plays out and who will be next after that.

“I want to be as busy as I can. Fight in June and definitely be out again before the end of the year. I need to keep busy now, stay in the ring, stay active, hopefully do a job on Tyler Denny and move on to an even bigger fight. This is a big fight, but hopefully a bigger one by the end of the year. There are big fights there for me, I’ve just got to make sure I do the job on Tyler Denny, and look good doing it. Then we will hopefully have some big and exciting fights.”

Things might have been very different had Cash been able to use victory over Bentley as the launchpad so many thought it would be. It wasn’t the case, and Cash now hopes he will not be left lamenting a missed opportunity to climb through a sliding door that he found closed a couple of years later. 

“Obviously I do look back at that time,” Cash admitted. “Obviously everything happens for a reason and it’s no good to keep dwelling on that, because I had other things going on in my life so I probably missed a few opportunities there, but it is what it is. It’s about the future and that’s in the past and I’ve just gotta make things right now.

“I wouldn’t be in this sport if I didn’t think I could be a world champion. If I didn’t think I was good enough, I wouldn’t do it. There are a lot of easier things to do – but I enjoy boxing. I love boxing, so I definitely feel I’ve got what it takes to go the whole way.” 

Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a Board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and The Ring of Brotherhood. He is a former boxing broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular Boxing Life Stories podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, is on The Ring ratings panel and the author of five boxing books, including Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing, Warrior: A Champion’s Search For His Identity and The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxings’ Wastelands.