Right Then, The Number Is In
Right then. The Hamzah Sheeraz mandatory went to a purse bid on Wednesday because Queensberry and Top Rank could not sort it out between themselves like adults, and the result is in. Queensberry won it at $1,001,809. Top Rank came in at $820,000.
Under the WBO's 75-25 championship split, that puts roughly $751,357 in Sheeraz's pocket and around $250,452 in Janibek Alimkhanuly's. Queensberry have put forward November 28 or December 5, and offered up London, Birmingham or New York as venues.
So there it is. No more hypotheticals. There is a promoter, there is a number, and there is a date range.
About That "Considerably Low" Money
Let's not beat around the bush, because this is the bit that matters. Two days before the bid, Sheeraz sat on a podcast and said this:
“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.”
That is a man laying the groundwork. You do not say that before a purse bid unless you are building yourself somewhere soft to land if the number disappoints.
Well, the number did not disappoint. Three quarters of a million dollars for a mandatory defence is not Canelo money and nobody is pretending it is, but it is a perfectly respectable purse for a fighter at this stage with this résumé, against a man the sport rates far higher than it rates him.
The get-out clause has been taken off the table. That is what Wednesday actually achieved.
Why This Is A Nightmare Fight For Him
Janibek is not a name Sheeraz picked. That is exactly the point of a mandatory, and it is exactly why this one is frightening.
The Kazakh is a southpaw with genuine variety, proper angles and the kind of ring geography that turns a rangy fighter's best asset — his reach — into a liability. He does not need to be dragged into a brawl to beat you. He can out-think you standing still.
Now look at the last time out. Simon Zachenhuber is a fighter almost nobody outside Germany could name, and he still had Sheeraz on the ropes with the high guard up and the hands not coming back. Zachenhuber could not finish. Janibek finishes.
That is the whole story of this fight in two paragraphs. The same defensive habit that survived an ordinary night becomes a very short evening against a sharp southpaw.
The Vacating Question
Make no mistake, the option is still there. He can hand the belt back, take a soft voluntary somewhere, and tell everyone the business made it impossible.
It would not wash. Sheeraz got a fast track up the 168-pound rankings that plenty of better-credentialled fighters would have loved, picked up the strap, and has now been ordered to defend it against the man the division actually fears. Walking away at that precise moment is not bad luck twice. It is a pattern, and the public can read a pattern.
Being a prizefighter is a real argument. It is also the argument every champion reaches for when the dangerous one gets ordered.
Where It Should Land
London or Birmingham, and it should be Britain. Sheeraz is a Slough fighter who has never headlined a proper British night as champion, and this is the one that would announce him at home if he came through it.
New York is the option that reads like a hedge. If they take the fight to New York on a Queensberry bid, that tells you they fancy a neutral room and a smaller occasion.
Luke's Verdict
Credit where it is due — Queensberry backed their man with over a million dollars when they did not have to, and that is a promoter putting money behind a fighter who was publicly wobbling.
But I am not sitting on the fence about the fight. Janibek is levels above him as a technician and has been for years. Sheeraz is bigger, younger and hits hard, and if he lands clean early anything can happen at 168. I do not think he gets the chance.
My call: the fight gets made for December 5 in London, and Janibek Alimkhanuly wins a clear unanimous decision, something like 117-111. The southpaw angles, the body work in the middle rounds, and a champion who has never had to solve a puzzle like this one.
And if it does not get made? Then we all know exactly what we watched here, and Hamzah Sheeraz spends the rest of his career answering for it.
More on the super middleweight picture on our news page, and every confirmed date is on the fight schedule.