Fast-rising middleweight prospect Hamzah Sheeraz of Berkshire, United Kingdom had the opportunity to fight the unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez—Frank Warren of Queensberry Promotions has revealed. The Mexican superstar is coming off a unanimous decision win over former number-one contender Edgar Berlanga. 

The duo went toe-to-toe back in September, which turned out to be a one-sided affair as Canelo dropped ‘The Chosen One’ in the fourth round en route to a spectacular unanimous decision win. On the other hand, 25-year-old Sheeraz sent Tyler Denny crashing onto the canvas twice before securing an easy win on the undercard of Anthony Joshua vs. Daniel Dubois on September 21st at Wembley. 

However, according to Warren, instead of fighting different opponents, Canelo and Sheeraz could have fought each other. Speaking to a reporter from Boxing Nation on YouTube earlier today, the Hall of Fame promoter said, “We were offered the Canelo fight early this year, but I said no, not yet. [For Sheeraz]. Really good money. An offer was made.”

The 72-year-old told Boxing Nation, “I don’t know where it would have been—it’s just an offer was made.” Regardless, Sheeraz will be focusing on collecting belts in the middleweight division for now. Not to mention, the WBO has ordered their champion Janibek Alimkhanuly of Kazakhstan to defend his title against mandatory opponent Sheeraz following the latter’s second-round dismissal of Denny. 

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Despite the offer from Canelo Alvarez, Hamzah Sheeraz to bat for the WBO & IBF titles

Earlier this year, Alimkhanuly had expressed his desire to fight Erislandy Lara, but WBO seems to have other plans for the WBO and IBF champion. A ruling from Luis Batista-Salas, chairman of WBO, read, “Please be advised that the parties herein are hereby ordered to commence negotiations for the subject matter bout.”

Reportedly, Alimkhanuly and Sheeraz have 15 days to reach an agreement—if they fail to do so, the WBO has claimed they will have to order the purse bid proceedings pursuant to WBO Regulations of World Championship Contests. The minimum acceptable bid for the fight is set at $200,000.

It’s worth mentioning that Janibek has revealed on social media that he is ready for the fight, and Sheeraz’s promoter Frank Warren has also shown enthusiasm about the matchup. 

That said, as the boxing world speculates who Canelo Alvarez would fight next, it’s intriguing to get the previously unknown insight from Frank Warren about who Canelo had on his radar. Regardless, what do you think about the fight between Sheeraz and Alimkhanuly?