Hamzah Sheeraz Sounds Ready To Vacate WBO Belt

Hamzah Sheeraz says he has accepted a WBO super middleweight title defense against Janibek Alimkhanuly, but his latest comments leave a large financial escape hatch. Unless Wednesday’s purse bid produces an offer he considers worthy of the risk, Sheeraz sounds prepared to vacate.

The purse bid will take place September 16 after Queensberry and Top Rank failed to reach an agreement. Sheeraz has not received a direct offer from either promoter and doubts Janibek brings enough commercial value to generate the purse he wants.

“We’ll fight. We accept the fight. Let’s crack on,” Sheeraz told the Mr. Verzace podcast. “I haven’t had an offer from anyone yet. I’ve not got an offer from Queensberry. I’ve not got an offer from Top Rank. Now the fight goes to purse bids, so we’ll see what happens. We’re prizefighters. We fight for the right amount of money. I believe it’s going to come to a point where the money is going to be considerably low for the biggest fight of my career. To me, it doesn’t really make sense, especially being a champion as well.”

That does not sound like an unconditional acceptance. Sheeraz is hoping for a lucrative offer while already explaining why a smaller purse may lead him elsewhere.

If the winning bid is enormous, the defense likely goes forward. If it is ordinary championship money, Sheeraz may surrender the title and argue that facing Janibek made no financial sense. The risk became clearer during Sheeraz’s recent defense against Simon Zachenhuber. The little-known German trapped him against the ropes and shelled him with combinations while the champion covered up behind a high guard.

Zachenhuber lacked the experience, accuracy and finishing ability to capitalize fully. Janibek operates at a much higher level and possesses the southpaw angles, timing and offensive variety to punish those defensive spells.

Complaints about Janibek’s adverse finding will not erase that conclusion. Sheeraz accepted the WBO’s favorable treatment during his own rapid rise at 168.  It would look terrible if he vacated, and the hardcore boxing base would tear him apart for it. Walking away once can be written off by promoters as bad timing or promotional friction. Doing it twice to the exact same guy? That stops being promotional politics and becomes a clear pattern of avoidance.

The optics are especially rough because of how Sheeraz got here. He enjoyed the fast track up the WBO rankings at 168, collected the belt, and the second a genuine stylistic nightmare gets ordered as mandatory, suddenly the purse bid cash is not quite right.

Prizefighting is a business, sure, but champions are supposed to fight the best available threats to cement their status. Crying about market value before the bids even open gives off the unmistakable odor of someone pricing himself out of harm’s way. If he dumps the strap in the bin to go chase safe paydays against fringe contenders, fans will not buy the economic excuse for a second. They will call it what it looks like: running scared from the Kazakh southpaw.