Hamzah Sheeraz (22-0-1, 18 KOs) destroyed Edgar Berlanga (23-2, 18 KOs) by a fifth-round knockout in a WBC super middleweight title eliminator on Saturday night at the Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York.
Sheeraz struggled early in the first two rounds. In the fourth round, Sheeraz threw a blistering fast four-punch combination, catching Berlanga with a right and a left that put him down face-first on the canvas.
When Berlanga got to his feet, he looked hurt, and his legs weren’t there. Hamzah then pounced on him, dropping him a second time with a left-right combination. He got up at the count of eight, bleeding from the nose, and wobbly.
Before the action could continue, the round ended. Berlanga staggered back to his corner, looking in bad shape. At the start of the fifth round, Hamzah finished off Edgar, dropping him with a right-left combination, prompting the referee, David Fields, to wave it off. The time of the stoppage was 17 seconds into round five.
“I will stand in the middle and have it out with him,” said Sheeraz about what he would do if he fought Canelo Alvarez in early 2026. “I told Andy, ‘I can hunt this guy down.’ There was nothing stopping me tonight.”
Undercard results
WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson (24-0, 11 KOs) defeated challenger William Zepeda (33-1, 27 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision in the co-feature fight. The judges gave Zepeda no credit for having outworked Stevenson in every round.
It was unfair, but Shakur was the house fighter. So, it’s not surprising. It would have taken a miracle for him to get the win with the way the judges scored the fight. The scores were 118-110, 118-110, and 119-109. I had Zepeda winning 9-3. He was the busier fighter, landed the better shots, and forced Stevenson to fight when he wanted to run.
Former IBF light welterweight champion Subriel Matias (23-2, 22 KOs) used nonstop pressure to grind out a 12-round majority decision win over WBC light welterweight champion Alberto Puello (24-1, 10 KOs). The scores were 114-114, 115-113, and 115-113 for Matias.
The constant holding that Puello did resulted in a lot of boos from the crowd, as he was doing this throughout the fight. Interestingly, the referee allowed him to use this tactic despite it being way too excessive. The judges likely noted the holding and factored it into their scoring. It was clear that Puello didn’t like the pressure.
After the fight, Turki Alalshikh revealed that Matias will be defending his newly won WBC 140-lb title against Dalton Smith in November in Riyadh.
Light heavyweight contender David Morrell (12-1, 9 KOs) was forced to get off the canvas in the fifth round to rally in the later rounds to defeat Imam Khataev (10-1, 9 KOs). Morrell was dropped in the fifth round when he got caught by a right hand from Khataev that he didn’t see coming. However, Morrell came on strong to stagger Khataev in rounds nine and ten. The scores were 95-94 for Khataev, 96-93, and 95-94 for Morrell.
Featherweight prospect Reito Tsutsumi (2-1 KOs) made easy work of substitute Michael Ruiz (2-8-1), dropping him three times en route to a second-round TKO. Ruiz, 33, was down twice from body shots in round one, as Tsutsumi stalked him around the ring, focusing mostly on attacking the body. The finish came 28 seconds into round two when Tsutsumi, 22, landed a straight left to the head that put Ruiz down on one knee. The referee, Eric Dalli, then waved it off.
