Hamzah Sheeraz has had September 21 circled on his calendar for months.
The unbeaten middleweight was being pushed for a major slot on Riyadh Season’s Wembley Stadium showpiece event even before he impressively dealt with Austin “Ammo” Williams in May but, until this week, securing a quality opponent was proving to be difficult.
The WBC champion Carlos Adames and Chris Eubank Jr. were the names most regularly linked to his. European middleweight champion Tyler Denny, 19-2-3 (1 KO), only became a viable option after his victory over Felix Cash in Birmingham on Saturday night.
Denny’s name began to be mentioned in boxing circles on Monday morning. By Tuesday evening the fight was signed, and on Wednesday afternoon they were facing off at a press conference to announce the fight.
After taking the dangerous Williams’ unbeaten record, the WBC mandatory challenger Sheeraz, 20-0 (16 KOs), will have already started to mentally prepare himself for another hard fight but one in which the risks were outweighed by the potential rewards. Instead, he will enter the ring as a sizeable favorite against an in-form, determined champion who himself has nothing to lose. Their roles may have changed but the mature, calm 25-year-old is renowned for his detailed preparation, and has already switched his mindset.
“I can only fight whoever they put in front of me,” he told TNT. “I gave the green light to about four different opponents, world champions and class opponents – I’m not saying Tyler Denny isn’t – but I feel like this fight is one of those where everybody is saying it’s such a big step up for Tyler, they’re forgetting about what I can do.
“If I don’t take it serious, it’s a potential banana skin. If I do take it serious, it’s a fight that can take me to the next level in terms of how I turn up on the 21st of September. I can assure you right now that you’re gonna see the best version of me without a doubt.”
Sheeraz’s promoter, Frank Warren, took him on as a raw, gangly 18 year-old but Warren quickly earmarked the youngster as a future champion. Still, even he must be slightly surprised by just how seamless Sheeraz’s rise to world level has been. Since moving up to the 160lbs division two years ago, he has been flawless and he has also grown in stature outside of the ring. The burden of expectation may have started to weigh heavier but Sheeraz has shouldered it with ease. He speaks of welcoming the pressure and insists that if he is to reach the heights he believes he can, he has to learn to deal with it.
“To be the likes of a ‘Canelo’ Alvarez or to be a Floyd Mayweather, you’ve got to be put in this position and you’ve gotta be consistent,” he said. “To be a world-level fighter, consistency is key. If you keep performing and keep putting on these better performances you just get bigger and better. This is what makes it a dangerous fight. There’s no pressure on Tyler Denny. The pressure’s all on me.”
After an uneven start to his career, Denny is riding a wave and has figured out how to make his style work for him. Although his victory over Cash was officially a technical decision, the cut that Cash suffered over his right eye after a clash of heads only saved him from a long, hard night. Denny had begun to really motor and was putting together a career-best performance when the fight went to the scorecards midway through the fifth round.
Denny may have only one inside-the-distance win on his record but the 32 year-old is fighting – and punching – with the confidence of a champion and stopped the previously unbeaten Cash in his tracks on more than one occasion. Sheeraz knows that Denny is capable of punishing him for any momentary lapse in concentration.
“All it takes is a certain amount of pressure on the chin and you’re out,” he said. “It’s not one of those where I’m thinking he can’t punch and I’m gonna walk him down. He’s always defied the odds, so coming into this one he’s gonna think, ‘This is what I always do. It’s nothing new to me’.”