Frank Warren says Hamzah Sheeraz was wrongly advised to vacate WBO title

Frank Warren believes Hamzah Sheeraz was wrongly advised to give up his WBO super-middleweight title rather than face mandatory challenger Janibek Alimkhanuly, Boxing News reported.

Frank Warren believes Hamzah Sheeraz has been wrongly advised to vacate his WBO title instead of facing leading contender Janibek Alimkhanuly, Boxing News reported.

The Queensberry Promotions boss told IFL TV he was disappointed by the decision and could see no reason or rationale behind it, insisting that a champion should defend his belt. Warren said Sheeraz had won the title against probably the easiest opponent in the top 50, and that Queensberry had worked hard to put the 27-year-old in that position, only for him to decline the defence. Sheeraz is believed to have at least one fight remaining on his current promotional contract.

Sheeraz walked away from the belt despite being entitled to the larger share of a 75/25 purse split. Queensberry had won the right to stage the fight at a purse bid hearing with a bid of just over $1 million.

The Ilford super-middleweight gave up the belt earlier this month: Hamzah Sheeraz vacates WBO super-middleweight title.

With the title now vacant, Alimkhanuly has been ordered to fight fellow unbeaten contender Jacob Bank for it.

Sheeraz won the WBO belt at 168lbs with a second-round finish over Alem Begic in May. The WBO then ordered him to make a mandatory defence against Alimkhanuly, who had given up his own WBO middleweight title to move up to super-middleweight.

The 33-year-old Kazakh became the mandatory challenger despite testing positive for the banned substance meldonium in November. The IBF stripped him of its middleweight title at the time, while the WBO handed him a year-long suspension, then ended it in July and allowed him to keep his belt.

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