We’ve seen it so often in this great sport of ours: a fighter, usually the big betting favourite, entering the ring with an opponent he is fully expected to beat but with him making the mistake of looking ahead to a bigger fight and then losing in an upset.
Hamzah Sheeraz might not be the betting favourite going into Saturday’s DAZN PPV fight with Edgar Berlanga, but the British star who will be boxing both his US and his 168 pound debut, says he himself made the mistake of looking ahead to a big fight when he challenged Carlos Adames for a portion of the middleweight title last time out.
Why Sheeraz Won’t Make the Same Mistake Again
Sheeraz admits all the talk of a big fight between himself and Chris Eubank Jr got to him, and that he wasn’t fully focused on Adames, with the two boxing to a draw. Sheeraz, 21-0-1(17) says he will not make the same mistake in the Berlanga fight, even though there is talk that, should he win, Sheeraz could land a massive fight with Canelo Alvarez next year.
Could Berlanga Be Looking Ahead to Canelo?
“It’s only because I learned from my last fight,” Sheeraz said to The Ring. “Before my last fight, everyone was talking about it. Eubank Jr this, Eubank Jr that, and you end up eventually believing it. You end up eventually feeling like it’s going to happen regardless. So yeah, I’ve definitely learned from my previous experience and now I understand that the buck actually does stop with Berlanga for now.”
Sheeraz needs to be fully focused on Berlanga, a man who has actually fought Canelo and is arguably more accustomed to the big-fight stage than Sheeraz is, especially as far as fights in America of course. But could Berlanga be guilty of looking past Sheeraz here, this as “The Chosen One” eyes a rematch with Canelo?
Berlanga-Sheeraz could prove to be the fight of the night on Saturday, this when Shakur Stevenson and William Zepeda will collide that same night on the same card. Both super-middleweights are predicting a KO win.
