{"id":743371,"date":"2026-08-19T21:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/743371\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T21:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:56:12","slug":"hamzah-sheeraz-speaks-out-on-disgraceful-order-for-next-world-title-fight-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/743371\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamzah Sheeraz speaks out on ‘disgraceful’ order for next world title fight: “Corruption”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following the WBO\u2019s decision to name its mandatory challenger at 168lbs, Hamzah Sheeraz<\/a> has alleged that \u201ccorruption\u201d and \u201culterior motives\u201d could be at play.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old claimed his world super-middleweight title in May, scoring a second-round finish against overmatched challenger Alem Begic for the vacant belt.<\/p>\n

Prior to that, Sheeraz had stopped Edgar Berlanga in five rounds<\/a> after boxing to a highly contentious draw against Carlos Adames down at middleweight.<\/p>\n

It could therefore be said that the Ilford man has not quite proven his world-class credentials, with his last outing resulting in a majority decision victory over the unspectacular Simon Zachenhuber in July.<\/p>\n

But still, Sheeraz has never shied away from a challenge and was willing to face the unbeaten and talented Jacob Bank \u2013 who was the WBO\u2019s next highest-ranked contender behind Canelo Alvarez \u2013 in his next assignment.<\/p>\n

That was until the WBO ordered him to defend his title against Janibek Alimkhanuly<\/a>, who has been named as the sanctioning body\u2019s mandatory challenger.<\/p>\n

This is in spite of the fact that Alimkhanuly tested positive for meldonium, a banned substance, in November, only for the WBO to subsequently terminate his year-long suspension.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Ariel Helwani<\/a>, Sheeraz expressed his frustration with the organisation\u2019s bewildering stance on the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a joke. I think what the WBO have done here is disgraceful to the sport of boxing as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they\u2019re essentially doing is rewarding someone who\u2019s been popped [for a banned substance].<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose it comes down to ulterior motives and corruption\u2026 I feel like it\u2019s all based on personal relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before failing a doping test, Alimkhanuly was the reigning unified middleweight champion until the IBF acted accordingly and stripped him of his belt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following the WBO\u2019s decision to name its mandatory challenger at 168lbs, Hamzah Sheeraz has alleged that \u201ccorruption\u201d and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-743371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743371","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=743371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}