Canelo Alvarez needs to look past Hamzah Sheeraz for his next outing. Beating Christian Mbilli was a solid statement, but following it up with Sheeraz would be a massive letdown. Hamzah simply has not earned a ticket to the front of the line.
Fans online already assume Turki Alalshikh will force this matchup. That speaks volumes about the current matchmaking environment. People expect what they think the money wants instead of the fights worth watching. Canelo has genuine options available. A rematch with Terence Crawford makes sense, while Jaron Ennis, Dmitry Bivol, Lester Martinez, or Osleys Iglesias would each offer far more entertainment.
Sheeraz, in stark contrast, is the ideal safe business fight. He gives the Riyadh Season brass an easy UK marketing angle, brings a recognizable name to British television, and holds zero real threat of upsetting the apple cart. As Simon Zachenhuber showed, Sheeraz is upright, gets uncomfortable when pressed, lacks defensive subtlety, and struggles to impose his height when someone refuses to fold early.
Against Canelo, Sheeraz would stand right in range, get timed coming in, and walk straight into counters without the ringcraft to survive it. Picking him is about protecting the brand and cashing a check, not testing greatness.
“Why not, bro? Why not test myself against the best,” said Sheeraz to DAZN Boxing when asked yesterday why he wants to fight Canelo. “I’m in this game to be the best, and put myself in there with someone with the likes of Canelo. It’s stuff you can dream of. Every day, I wake up, training harder and harder. It’s starting to become more of a reality. So, now it’s like, let me get in there and let me do my thing.”
Sheeraz did himself no favors during his recent majority decision win against Simon Zachenhuber. The German walked through his shots, pressed him constantly, and exposed his discomfort under fire. Nothing in that performance signaled that Sheeraz belongs in the ring with the face of boxing.
His brief title run did not validate him either. Picking up a vacant WBO belt by blowing out Alem Begic in two rounds proved very little. Begic was 39 with a paper record built on obscure opposition. Sheeraz then vacated rather than face Janibek Alimkhanuly, citing low money and an opponent returning from a failed test. He had every right to walk away, but walking away did not prove he is elite.
The refusal to fight Iglesias makes Sheeraz even harder to sell. Canelo openly suggested Hamzah face the dangerous Cuban to earn the shot. Sheeraz rejected the idea, pointing out that Edgar Berlanga and Jaime Munguia never had to pass such an audition. Canelo might have double standards, but whining about Berlanga does not elevate Hamzah’s resume.
Testing yourself against the best is what you do after you run through actual contenders, not after edging Simon Zachenhuber on a majority decision or blasting out Alem Begic.
If Sheeraz genuinely wanted to “test himself against the best” to prepare for Canelo, Osleys Iglesias was standing right there. Canelo offered him the exact blueprint: beat the Cuban southpaw, prove you belong at the elite tier, and bring real credibility to the table.
Saying “It’s stuff you can dream of” gives the game away. It is a dream because it represents the ultimate lottery ticket: a massive purse, global visibility, and zero downside if he loses to an all-time great. Every fringe contender wakes up training hard with that exact dream.
Wanting the biggest purse in the sport is understandable from a business perspective. Pretending that ambition alone makes you a worthy challenger is the part fans are tired of seeing. If everyone who “wakes up dreaming of Canelo” got the call, the sport would be nothing but exhibition paydays. Until Sheeraz takes on a legitimate threat who can punch back, talking about testing himself just sounds like someone angling for a retirement check.
