Hamzah Sheeraz showed he was ready to challenge Janibek Alimkhanuly for his IBF and WBO middleweight titles last Saturday night by dispatching Tyler Denny in two rounds at Wembley Stadium in London.
Janibek should be the champion that Sheeraz calls out, but there are questions about whether he’s ready. Tyler Denny is not the kind of fighter that will prepare Hamzah to challenge Janibek for his belts. Matching Hamzah against light hitters like Tyler Denny is stunting his growth as a fighter.
Is Hamzah Sheeraz a Hype Job?
Sheeraz is ranked #1 WBC and #1 WBO and poised for a world title shot. It’s unclear what the goal is for his management for his career because with how they’re moving him, it doesn’t appear he’s being prepared for the best fighters in the division like Janibek, Carlos Adames, or Erislandy Lara.
It might not work for Sheeraz to capture the WBC belt from Adames and then use that title as a launch pad to move up to 168 for an immediate title shot against Canelo. Assuming that’s the goal, it will fail because Sheeraz’s popularity won’t be high enough in the U.S. for Canelo to give him a title shot because the match won’t bring in good PPV numbers.
To get the Canelo payday, Hamzah Sheeraz must beat Janibek and Lara to get the American fans to take notice of him. He’s not going to do that by beating up on smallish, weaker fighters like Tyler Denny, and defeating Carlos Adames, who is arguably the weakest link among the three champions at middleweight, won’t be enough. Adames isn’t well known in the U.S, and not viewed as one of the best.
If the idea is to create a manufactured fighter like Edgar Berlanga for big cash out purposes, Sheeraz is fighting in the wrong division. He should be competing at 168 against fighters his size to get ranked for a title shot against unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.
He’s about to turn 27, and the way he’s being moved, he could soon be 30 and still fighting lower-level opposition. Do they feel Sheeraz isn’t ready to fight the killers at middleweight? He’s got the size of a super middleweight, which is obviously one of the reasons he’s looked good.
It’s understandable why Sheeraz wouldn’t want to move up to 168 because he would be facing guys who would expose him and take advantage of his fragile chin. However, it’s a waste of Sheeraz’s career if he hangs around at 160, fighting lesser opponents like Tyler Denny without at least trying to test himself against the best by facing Janibek.
Some fans feel that Sheeraz is a ‘hype job’ with a weak chin who will crumble once he’s thrown in with one of the dangerous sharks in the 160-lb division.
Why Isn’t Sheeraz Targeting Janibek?
Janibek is the test that Sheeraz’s management should focus on because if the hard-hitting Kazahk destroys him, he’s probably not worth keeping on. It would be better just to dump Hamzah or focus on matching him against only domestic-level fodder.
Sooner or later, they will have to throw Sheeraz in the deep end by putting him in with one of the champions to see if he’s worth placing high on the cards. Last weekend, Hamzah’s mismatch against Denny didn’t belong in the co-feature spot on the Anthony Joshua vs. Daniel Dubois card at Wembley Stadium.
It was such a bad matchup, and it was obvious that it was a showcase fight to make Hamzah look great after he’d been hurt in his previous fight by Austin Williams last June in Riyadh. Although Sheeraz eventually knocked out Williams in the 11th round, seeing him get staggered early wasn’t a pretty sight.
Janibek is the guy that Sheeraz should be calling out because he’s viewed as the #1 talent in the 160-lb division. Hamzah Sheeraz must face the 2016 Olympian Janibek to claim the top spot.
The light-hitting Tyler Denny (19-3-3, 1 KO) lacked the size and firepower to handle the 6’3″ heavy puncher. The fight was not even remotely competitive and didn’t do much to advance Sheeraz.
Janibek will defend his IBF/WBO titles next month against Andrei Mikhailovich (21-0, 13 KOs) on October 4th in Sydney, Australia. After that fight, Janibek’s schedule will be free, and he’ll be ready to defend against Hamzah if his management is willing to make that fight. I doubt they will because Janibek is the real thing.
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