Hamzah Sheeraz’s Title Shot: Is He Ready for Adames or Is He Avoiding Janibek and Lara?

#1 ranked Hamzah Sheeraz is in an ideal situation, facing what many believe to be the weakest link among middleweight champions, challenging WBC belt-holder Carlos Adames this Saturday, February 22nd, on Turki Alashikh’s Riyadh Season event at the Kingdom Arena on DAZN PPV.

Calculated Risk

Hamzah has received some criticism from fans for choosing Adames over WBC and WBO champion Janibek Alimkhanuly to fight for a world title. Even Janibek was amused by Sheeraz’s choice to fight Adames rather than him for his two belts.

It looks like a cunning, calculated move on Sheeraz’s part to take the weakest of the middleweight champions, Adames, rather than risk getting exposed as a fake hype job by Janibek or Erislandy Lara. Those are the two best fighters in this weak, barren, lifeless division by a long shot.

Some view Sheeraz as a 168-pounder in disguise who chooses to drain down to 160 because that’s his only chance of becoming a world champion. If you put Sheeraz in with Canelo Alvarez or some of the other killers at 168, it wouldn’t end well for him. Hence, he fights at 160 and looks massive inside the ring against the smaller fighters.

Adames (24-1, 18 KOs) has looked shaky in many fights since losing to Patrick Teixeira in 2019. Carlos barely got by Sergiy Derevyanchenko, winning a very questionable 10-round decision in a fight that many boxing fans had him losing. I watched the fight and felt that Derevyanchenko deserved the win against Adames by an 8-2 margin.

“This is it. This is the top level of boxing. This is what I feel I’ve been born to do,” said Hamzah Sheeraz to talkSport Boxing about his fight this Saturday night against WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames in Riyadh. “What an opportunity I’ve got to come through to become a world champion.

Sheeraz’s promoter has put them in the best spot to win a world title, and if he can’t produce here, one must question his future potential. He would face a near-certain defeat if he’d thrown Sheeraz in with WBC and WBO champion Janibek Alimkhanuly or WBA champion Erislandy Lara.

Those guys are too experienced and talented for the young, stork-like 6’3″ Hamzah to be matched against. Fans saw Sheeraz’s vulnerability in his fight against Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams last year on June 1st when he was rocked early on, looking out on his feet.

If not for Williams being such a limited fighter with no gas tank, he likely would have finished Sheeraz. After that scare, Sheeraz was matched against the weak-punching domestic-level fighter Tyler Denny last September, and he made easy work of him, scoring a second-round knockout.

Being matched against Denny instead of a top-tier fighter indicated that Sheeraz’s management was worried after his performance against ‘Ammo’ Williams. He looked chinny, causing some fans to compare him to Amir Khan based on his appearance when he was under fire by a very limited middleweight.