Queensberry wins purse bid for Sheeraz-Alimkhanuly title fight

Queensberry Promotions has won the purse bid to stage Hamzah Sheeraz’s WBO super-middleweight title defence against mandatory challenger Janibek Alimkhanuly, with November 28 and December 5 proposed as possible dates.

Queensberry, which promotes Sheeraz, submitted an offer of $1,001,809 to beat Top Rank’s bid of $820,000. London, Birmingham and New York were listed as potential locations, although Sheeraz has yet to confirm that he will proceed with the fight.

Under the WBO’s 75-25 split in favour of its champion, Sheeraz would receive approximately $750,000, with Alimkhanuly entitled to the remaining 25 per cent.

Before Wednesday’s purse bid, Sheeraz said he was willing to face Alimkhanuly if the money reflected what he considers the biggest fight of his career.

“We’ll fight, we accept the fight. Let’s crack on,” Sheeraz told The Ring’s Mr Verzace Podcast.

“I believe it’s going to come to a point where the money is gonna be considerably low for the biggest fight of my career. To me, it doesn’t really make sense. Especially being a champion as well. It could be a good offer, I’m praying it is and then it’s simple, the fight goes ahead. But I have a funny feeling that it won’t be. We’ll see what happens.”

The WBO ordered the contest on August 14 and gave Queensberry and Top Rank 20 days to reach an agreement. With no deal in place, the fight went to a purse bid at the sanctioning body’s headquarters in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Sheeraz, 24-0-1 (19 KOs), won the vacant title by stopping Alem Begic in the second round on May 23, then retained it with a majority decision over Simon Zachenhuber on July 25. He injured his hand early in that first defence but completed the 12 rounds.

“I hit him in a funny place, right at the top of his head, and felt it straight away,” Sheeraz told Ariel Helwani. “But from the positives, I got through 12 rounds with a little injury, back onto bigger and better things hopefully. We’re on the road to recovery as we speak now. I think I’ll be active end of November, early December.”

Those dates match the two options Queensberry submitted to the WBO, but Sheeraz’s concerns extend beyond the financial terms. He has strongly objected to Alimkhanuly receiving the mandatory position following the Kazakh’s anti-doping case.

Alimkhanuly, 17-0 (12 KOs), has not fought since stopping Anauel Ngamissengue in April 2025. He later tested positive for meldonium before a planned middleweight unification fight with Erislandy Lara in December 2025, leading to the contest being cancelled.

Alimkhanuly denied wrongdoing, but the IBF stripped him of its middleweight title and he was given a backdated one-year suspension. The WBO retained him as its middleweight champion and later said his suspension had been “terminated” with effect from July 10 after he complied with its conditions.

After moving to super-middleweight, the former unified middleweight champion was installed as Sheeraz’s mandatory challenger. Alimkhanuly was initially ranked second by the WBO behind Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, but moved to No. 1 after Alvarez opted to face WBC champion Christian Mbilli and was removed from the rankings.

Sheeraz has previously said he may have to discuss vacating the title with his team if he remains unhappy with the WBO’s decision.

“That [vacating the title] is something that I will have to discuss with my team,” he said. “What they have done, it pushes you into that corner of me eventually thinking like that and, if I was to do that, it would be totally justifiable.”

Alimkhanuly has publicly pressed Sheeraz to accept the mandatory defence. Before the purse bid, he wrote on X: “He’s dragged this out way too long. If he wants the fight, then say it and make it happen. If he doesn’t want to fight, he needs to vacate the title. I don’t have time to waste!”

Sheeraz is also approaching the end of his promotional agreement with Queensberry. He has said he has one fight remaining on the deal and could consider other options, including Zuffa Boxing, while leaving open the possibility of extending his relationship with Frank Warren’s company.

Queensberry must now choose a date and venue under the purse-bid terms, while Sheeraz and his team decide whether to go ahead with the mandatory defence.