Hamzah Sheeraz moved a step closer to a potential future showdown with Canelo Alvarez after a huge win on Saturday.
Sheeraz made a massive statement in his super-middleweight debut as he knocked out Edgar Berlanga in the fifth round of their bout at the Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York.
The fight came just a few months after Sheeraz was held to a draw with WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames, but it’s clear that 168lbs is now the right division for him.
In the immediate aftermath of the win over Berlanga, Saudi chief Turki Alalshikh revealed that it has paved the way for undefeated Sheeraz to take on Canelo at some stage in 2026.
Sheeraz’s emphatic win over Berlanga drew comparisons to how Canelo fared with the Puerto Rican when they met last September, with Alvarez only managing to win by unanimous decision.
With that in mind, legendary analyst Teddy Atlas told Boxing News that he feels the Brit is more than ready for a fight with Canelo.
“He got better from a draw with Adames. You don’t think he’s going to get better now? He’s going to get even better. People who don’t understand this sport don’t understand how you can grow. You can grow with experience. Yeah he didn’t look great against Adames but he learned and got answers to questions about himself.
“He showed what he learned from that fight and he’ll learn more from this fight. And my answer is yeah, he’ll be able to go in there with a Canelo, but first Canelo has got to get through a fighter that I think he’s got a hard time getting through in Crawford.”
As Atlas mentioned, Canelo must first focus on defending his undisputed super-middleweight titles against fellow pound-for-pound star Terence Crawford in Las Vegas in September.
