MANCHESTER, England — Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena hosted a light heavyweight extravaganza last Saturday night.

It was overshadowed by the controversy surrounding Joshua Buatsi’s contentious win over Zach Parker but the first fight of the televised broadcast saw undefeated Billy Deniz (14-0, 5 KOs) outpoint his local rival, Ezra Arenyeka (14-2, 11 KOs).

The result won’t cause too many waves on the world scene but the 25-year-old Mancunian’s development is worth watching.

Fuelled by an infamously violent sparring session a few years ago and magnified by the amount of interest in the event, the two engaged in a lively exchange at Thursday’s final press conference and Arenyeka attempted to slap Deniz with an egg as they posed for head-to-head photos.

Three years ago, it is fairly safe to say that the naturally aggressive Deniz wouldn’t have handled Arenyeka’s pre-fight provocation as calmly as he did.

Now trained by former Ring Magazine Trainer of the Year, Joe Gallagher, the man known as ‘The Turkish Tyson’ has matured and he produced a slick, smart display of boxing to outclass Arenyeka.

Deniz’s manager, Kevin Maree, doesn’t let his prospects loose on television until he is sure they are ready and he revealed that Deniz underwent some real character building during his time in a Canadian training camp with fearsome former undisputed 175-pound champion, Artur Beterbiev.

“He’s another one that we've built up behind the scenes that we're about to launch on the big stage. We've been refining him and getting him right. He's a former world kickboxing champion, one of the hardest kids in Manchester,” Maree told The Ring.

“I get asked a lot for sparring with the stable we've got. We sent Callum [Simpson, the British, Commonwealth and European super middleweight champion] out to spar with Beterbiev and they said, 'Have you got anybody else?' I thought the only other person who'd be up for going out there and doing that is Billy Deniz.”

Spending the best part of two months training alongside a fighter of Beterbiev’s quality is an invaluable learning experience for a young fighter but it is also not a job for the faint hearted.

They will be well looked after and have access to the best facilities but, when they are called upon, they need to be fit and ready to go but also talented and determined enough to make it through the inevitably very tough rounds.

For a young, fiery character like Deniz, it was the ideal boot camp. Allowing himself to get frustrated and reckless would be the surest way to get himself hurt.

Judging by the way he dealt with a potentially explosive situation last weekend, witnessing the cold, methodical way a fighter as ruthless and destructive as Beterbiev goes about his business seems to have rubbed off.

The red carpet wasn’t rolled out straight away, however. Deniz had to quickly prove his worth.

“Now, what I get told about Beterbiev when he brings people out to their training camps, he always puts them up for eight weeks and needs to know that we're going to be there for eight weeks. So he sticks it on them on the first day,” Maree said.

“Most don't come back. Then he knows, 'I need to get somebody else in, because if this goes on later on in the camp and I get stuck, I'm in a lot of trouble.'

“So, the first day they go out, he absolutely sticks it on Billy Deniz. Billy Deniz drops his hand, starts beating his chest like King Kong and throws himself at him and says, 'Come on then.'

“His trainer phoned me up night and said, 'This guy, I freaking love him. I absolutely love him.'

“He was there for eight weeks and he got asked to go back and he's been back about three or four times now. That says a lot about Billy Deniz in terms of his mentality and obviously his ability, because they don't mess around with camps like that.”