Hamzah Sheeraz To Challenge For World Title On February 22nd

Undefeated middleweight contender Hamzah Sheeraz will be getting a world title shot on February 22nd against one of the three champions in the 160-lb division in Riyadh.

Queensberry promoter Frank Warren reportedly told Michael Benson that Sheeraz (21-0, 17 KOs) will fight for a world title on the “same card as Daniel Dubois’s return.” However, there’s no word which of the champions the 25-year-old Sheeraz will be fighting. He’s ranked #1 WBC and #1 WBO.

If Queensberry wanted to show what Sheeraz is made of, they’d match him against IBF/WBO champion Janibek Alimhanuly, but that’s impossible to believe. The way Shereaz has looked, he’d lose badly to Janibek and would never beat him, no matter how many years went by.

Sheeraz will probably challenge WBC champion Carlos Adames rather than IBF and WBO champ Janibek because the latter is too talented. Sheeraz is a good fighter, but he’s not on Janibek’s level, and it wouldn’t go well for him to take on the unbeaten Kazakhstan fighter.

It would be too much of a step up in class for Sheeraz to challenge a fighter like Janibek. Sheeraz is a decent scraper when matched carefully, but he doesn’t have the kind of talent that would enable him to swim with a shark like Janibek.

The 6’3″ stork-like Sheeraz has been largely fighting on the domestic-level stage at the likes of Tyler Denny, Liam Williams, and Bradley Skeete during his seven-year professional career. Throwing Sheeraz in with Janibek would result in him getting smashed like the Kazakh’s last opponent, Andrei Mikhailovich.

Hamzah was staggered early by Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams in their fight earlier this year on June 1st and was fortunate that the American didn’t go to the finish after putting him on skates. If that had been Janibek or Erislandy Lara, it would have been all over for Sheeraz.

If it is Adames (24-1, 18 KOs) that Sheeraz challenges on February 22nd, he’s got a decent chance of winning because this is a flawed champion that hasn’t looked impressive in fights against Terrell Gausha, Serhiy Derevyanchenko and Patrick Teixeira. Adames lost to Teixeira by a 12-round unanimous decision on November 30th, 2019.