Rising middleweight prospect Hamzah Sheeraz was hoping his next opponent would be Chris Eubank Jr.
Instead, Sheeraz’s fight with Tyler Denny – coming up on the Sept. 21 undercard of Daniel Dubois vs. Anthony Joshua in London – was signed in June. And a few weeks back, it was announced that Eubank’s next opponent would be Kamil Szeremeta on the Oct. 12 undercard of Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol in Ryiadh.
“I was disappointed. Disappointed as a potential opponent. Disappointed as a boxing purist. Disappointed as a casual. Disappointed as a human,” Sheeraz told Joe Pugh of iFL TV. “The reason being is when you’re at that level, you can’t say, ‘Cause I’ve been out of the ring for too long, I need a warm-up fight back.’ I give the example of Terence Crawford. After the Spence fight, he didn’t fight for what, a year and a half? And he’s come back fighting an active strong fighter in Madrimov.”
In truth, about a year separated Terence Crawford’s undisputed welterweight championship win over Errol Spence in late July 2023 and his victory over junior middleweight titleholder Israil Madrimov in early August 2024.
But Sheeraz’s point still stands. Eubank’s (33-3, 24 KOs) last performance was in September 2023, when he won a rematch with Liam Smith via 10th-round technical knockout. This bout with Szeremeta will end a 13-month layoff.
Szeremeta (25-2-2, 8 KOs) had two fights against upper-tier middleweights and was outclassed both times, floored repeatedly by Gennady Golovkin before being stopped after seven rounds in December 2020, then sent packing following six rounds with Jaime Munguia in July 2021. Since then, Szeremeta has gone 4-0-2 against nondescript opposition.
“This is not a walkover by any means, but it’s a fight I’m supposed to win,” Eubank recently told The Independent. “There will be a little bit of ring rust, but I think this is the perfect type of opponent to get into the ring with after a year away – to introduce myself to that Saudi contingency and put on a show for Turki [Alalshikh, who is financing this show]. It puts me in a great position to get those megafights.”
Sheeraz has called for a clash with Eubank on several occasions. Instead, he’s been in the process of making a name for himself in lieu of being able to capitalize on Eubank’s. This year, Sheeraz (20-0, 16 KOs) has taken out Liam Williams in one round and Austin “Ammo” Williams (no relation to Liam) in 11 rounds. The Ring magazine has Sheeraz ranked No. 3 in the middleweight division while the Transnational Boxing Ratings Board lists Sheeraz as No. 4. Eubank is No. 5 with both The Ring and TBRB.
All four sanctioning bodies also rank Sheeraz highly, with two placing him in their top spot.
That could put Sheeraz in position to challenge for a world title in a division that, for now, is lacking in depth and star power. Still, Sheeraz would like a clash with Eubank and says there’s only one person to blame if that clash doesn’t happen.
“It’s all down to him,” Sheeraz told Pugh. “Then he’s just being a pussy, and it’s as simple as that. There’s no other way to put it. And I think that’s the way I’ve got to go about things now. I got to go set myself to win a world title, and then I’m sure he’ll come crawling back.”
Follow David Greisman on Twitter @FightingWords2. His book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
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