Janibek Alimkhanuly-Hamzah Sheeraz title fight ordered by WBO

The WBO has called for negotiations between unified middleweight titleholder Janibek Alimkhanuly and Hamzah Sheeraz to begin.

The two teams have 15 days, until October 23, to reach an agreement, or the fight will be sent to a purse bid, according to a letter the WBO issued on Tuesday. They don’t necessarily need to wait to reach an agreement. Either can request a purse bid before then; the minimum bid for the fight is $200,000.

Alimkhanuly (16-0, 11 KOs) — a 31-year-old Kazakh living in Oxnard, California — recently defended his IBF and WBO titles with a ninth-round technical knockout of Andrei Mikhailovich.

Sheeraz (21-0, 17 KOs), a 25-year-old from London, has stood out as the division’s top prospect and looks to be a bona fide contender in a 160lbs scene that is otherwise lacking in depth. In September he impressively stopped Tyler Denny in two rounds on the undercard of Daniel Dubois-Anthony Joshua.

Sheeraz is ready to step up. He’s ranked #1 by the WBO as well as the WBC, whose titleholder is Carlos Adames.

As reported by The Ring, Sheeraz won the European middleweight belt with that win over Denny and has since been ordered to defend it against Denzel Bentley (20-3-1, 17 KOs), who like Sheeraz is being guided by Queensberry Promotions. The European Boxing Union has said that Sheeraz and Bentley have until October 31 to reach a deal.

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2 and @UnitedBoxingPod. He is the co-host of the United Boxing Podcast. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.