“Busted Hand” or Bad Judging? Sheeraz’s Draw Against Adames Creates Controversy

WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames (24-1-1, 18 KOs) and #1 Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0-1, 17 KOs) battled to a highly questionable 12-round split draw on Saturday night that has fans angry over what they witnessed in this fight at The Venue in Riyadh.

Adames dominated Hamzah from start to finish in a one-sided fight. It was nonstop pressure from Adames, who nailed Sheeraz with body shots and punches to the head. The punches that Sheeraz, 6’3″, was throwing were badly telegraphed and easy for the more experienced Adames to avoid.

Adames cemented fans’ existing view of Hamzah Sheeraz, exposing him as a hype man who was never as good as naive fans believed. Sheeraz came into the fight with a record of 21, filled with weak British-level opposition, and he was totally out of his class against Adames. Many people see this as the weakest link of the champions at 160.

If Hamzah had chosen IBF and WBO champion Janibek Alimkhanuly or WBA champ Erislandy Lara, he wouldn’t have seen the final bell.

Domination Goes Unrewarded 

Fans on social media overwhelmingly viewed the results as a robbery, and it tarnished the card. I scored the fight 117-111 for Adames, but 118-110 was more fair.

The scores

115-114: Sheeraz
118-110: Adames
114-114

After the fight, Sheeraz’s promoter said he had a busted hand, but he struggled the entire fight. So, if Hamzah did suffer a hand injury, it must have occurred in the first round.

“He broke his hand. He has a busted hand. You could see in the fight something wasn’t quite right,” said promoter Frank Warren to TNT Sports Boxing about his fighter, Hamzah Sheeraz after his controversial draw against WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames on Saturday night in Riyadh.

“I think that’s a fair reflection of the fight, to be quite honest. One of the judges, I don’t know where he was at with his scoring. He’s [Hamzah] 23 years of age. I think he’s struggling at the weight in that fight. I was looking at him at the weigh-in. He may move up. I’m not sure about that. We’ll have a discussion about that.

“We could maybe get a rematch. We’ll wait and see what happens. He done well moving up against a good fighter. A lot of people didn’t fancy him. I think he gave a good account of himself, especially with a busted hand,” said Warren.