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.

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,[4] 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).

In an homage to Stephan Johnson, a former amateur teammate at the Bed-Stuy famed (Bedford-Stuyvesant) Boxing Association and fellow Golden Glover who succumbed to injuries suffered in a professional boxing match in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Michael privately presented Stephan's mother with a pair of his own New York Golden Gloves champion medallions.

Bentt maintained that neither he nor Steward knew Jones was a southpaw but counts both the devastation and humiliation suffered that night as "hugely valuable and key" to his massive upset of Tommy Morrison some four years later.

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.

Michael landed the coveted role of Sonny Liston, while also serving as both Smith's chief sparring partner and assistant trainer during the six months of boxing training before principal photography began on the film.

He also starred as Biggis (El Plaga) opposite Beanie Sigel, Noriega, and Damon Dash in the Dash-directed hip hop cult classic State Property 2.

Among his guest starring roles in television dramas are 'Calvin Trainier', a Suge Knight-esque record label honcho in Michael Mann's Robbery Homicide Division, as 'Charles Lambert', an NFL linebacker who years earlier suffered sexual abuse at the hands of his adoptive father, and as 'Dion'- an imprisoned homosexual snitch in Sons Of Anarchy.

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. 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.

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.