On February 22, Hamzah Sheeraz will challenge WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames. That fight was the obvious next thing after Sheeraz (21-0, 17 KOs) pulled out of his scheduled fight against WBO 160-lb champion Janibek Alimkhanuly. WBO president Gustavo Olivieri said Sheeraz, 25, had withdrawn from that bout.
Fighting Janibek would be tough for the lanky 6’3″ Sheeraz because his size and power weren’t much help against this talented champion. He probably would have nullified Sheeraz’s advantages and knocked him out pretty quickly .He doesn’t have the biggest chin and he hasn’t fought at the world level.
Adames will be a tough fight for Sheeraz
Sheeraz is the #1 WBC ranked champion Adames (24-1, 18 KOs). It will always be a dangerous fight for Sheeraz because Adames is a great puncher and has an amateur pedigree.
Adames is the only one of the three middleweight champions that Sheeraz had the chance to beat because he did not show the talent that would allow him to defeat the IBF / WBO champion Janibek or WBA champion Erislandy Lara.
“He will fight Adames for the WBC belt on February 22, per source,” said Dan Rafael on XSpeaking of Hamzah Sheeraz challenging WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames after February 22nd.
If Sheeraz can defeat Adames, he can use the WBC title to validate his credentials so he can move up to 168 to challenge unified champion Canelo Alvarez in a fight for him. The WBC doesn’t have a “Super Champion” position that Sheeraz can use to make it mandatory for Canelo, like the WBO does, but he doesn’t need it.
Canelo seems to be interested in fighting vulnerable, inexperienced fighters with inflated records in this final stage of his career. He is probably willing to fight Sheeraz because he fulfills all these categories. His record is full of fluff wins, and he has no real qualifications in terms of experience to fight Canelo, which makes him perfect.
Sheeraz has recent wins over Tyler Denny, Austin Williams and Liam Williams. These are good fringe middleweights, but nowhere near the level of Adames or the other two champions, Lara and Janibek.
