{"id":425745,"date":"2026-02-14T18:08:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T18:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/425745\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T18:08:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T18:08:23","slug":"bigger-better-things-for-sheeraz-after-begic-title-fight-says-warren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/425745\/","title":{"rendered":"Bigger, better things for Sheeraz after Begic title fight, says Warren"},"content":{"rendered":"

Terence Crawford\u2019s decision to retire<\/a> after relieving Saul \u201cCanelo” Alvarez of his undisputed 168-pound crown last September left the division without a recognised champion. Back in November, the WBC ordered a fight between Sheeraz (22-0-1, 18 KOs) and Christian Mbilli<\/a> for their vacant title.<\/p>\n

Just a few weeks later, the WBO asked Sheeraz and unbeaten American, Diego Pacheco, to enter into negotiations for their vacant belt. <\/p>\n

In the enviable position of being able to choose his own adventure, Sheeraz and his team surveyed the landscape and decided that taking on Pacheco offered the biggest upside. <\/p>\n

However, with purse bids imminent, Pacheco decided to take himself out of the running<\/a> to pursue other options.<\/p>\n

Begic (29-0-1, 23 KOs) was the first available contender and the WBO quickly pivoted to make the fight. He and Sheeraz – who is ranked at No. 8 by The Ring – will fight for the vacant title later this spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cPacheco obviously didn’t want it. He didn’t fancy it, so we\u2019ve got the German, Begic,\u201d Sheeraz\u2019s promoter, Frank Warren, told The Ring<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s a real good fight for him [Sheeraz]. For me it’s a very winnable fight. He wins that, he gets his title, we’ve delivered and then on to bigger and better things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI chose to go there [the WBO route] because I fancy the Pacheco fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked at the box office, the American-based box office. It had Matchroom, it had us [Queensberry]. It had all the things that make it work. I was surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Although the clashes didn\u2019t come together during the bunfight to claim the belts Crawford vacated, it seems inevitable that Sheeraz will eventually cross paths with Pacheco and Mbilli .<\/p>\n

Many will see him beating Begic as a formality and before he heads into a series of exciting, meaningful unification fights. <\/p>\n

Warren has been a believer in Sheeraz since his days as a gangly junior middleweight. Although the 26-year-old from Slough showed moments of true promise on his rise through the divisions, a disappointing draw with WBC middleweight champion, Carlos Adames, a year ago caused some to put a ceiling on his potential and led to the 6-foot-4 Sheeraz moving up to super middleweight. <\/p>\n

Warren feels that last July\u2019s exciting knockout of Edgar Berlanga<\/a> showed exactly what Sheeraz is capable of now he doesn\u2019t have to fight the scales.<\/p>\n

\u201cHamzah had a great win out in America – a really good win in America – and he showed them what he’s all about and it\u2019s because he’s comfortable at the weight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a big guy, he’s got a big frame on him. I don’t know how he was fighting at middleweight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Terence Crawford\u2019s decision to retire after relieving Saul \u201cCanelo” Alvarez of his undisputed 168-pound crown last September left…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[59273,2560,151516,6102,50,101,6826,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-425745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-object-object","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-articles","tag-boxing-news","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-the-ring","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}