Britain's Hamzah Sheeraz crushes Edgar Berlanga to announce 168lb arrival

The Guardian

2 days ago

Rising British star Hamzah Sheeraz made an explosive arrival to boxing's super middleweight division on Saturday night, stopping Edgar Berlanga in the fifth round of their bout at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens. The destructive performance marked a resounding debut at 168lb for the 26-year-old from Ilford and dramatically altered the landscape of a weight class ruled by Saul 'Canelo' Álvarez.
Fighting in the main event of a Ring Magazine card staged on the No 2 show court of the US Open tennis tournament, Sheeraz dropped Berlanga twice in the fourth round before closing the show 17 seconds into the fifth. It was the kind of showcase that not only silences critics but instantly propels a fighter from prospect to contender – and in this case, into potential lucrative matchups with the likes of Álvarez or David Benavidez.
The setting for Sheeraz's career-best win was just as striking as the action. For the first time, the grounds of the US Open hosted a professional boxing card, transforming Louis Armstrong Stadium from the spiritual home of American tennis into a midsummer prizefighting stage. Originally slated for Central Park, the event instead brought Turki al-Sheikh's Ring series indoors beneath the stadium's retractable roof, offering welcome relief from New York's July swelter and a robust turnout that filled the lower bowl and pushed into the second tier. The scene was crackling with energy – a sharp contrast from May's sparsely attended Times Square card – and a fitting capstone to a boxing-heavy weekend in New York that had begun with Katie Taylor's win over Amanda Serrano on Friday night at Madison Square Garden.
Sheeraz (22-0-1, 18 KOs) was making his super middleweight bow after a disappointing split draw against Carlos Adames at 160lb in February. In the wake of that result, he enlisted former middleweight champion Andy Lee as his trainer and moved up in weight. Both decisions looked inspired on Saturday.
After a slow first three rounds, Sheeraz took control in the fourth. He slipped under a Berlanga uppercut and countered with a left hook that sent the Brooklyn native crashing flat onto his back and half under the ropes. Berlanga (23-2, 18 KOs) beat the count but never recovered. Seconds later, Sheeraz dropped him again with a crisp left-right combination that sent him clattering to the canvas, seemingly more dazed than defiant.
The bell temporarily spared Berlanga, but Sheeraz needed just one more salvo in the fifth – a right-left that left Berlanga sagging – to prompt referee David Fields' rightful intervention.
'I promise you, I swear to you, whoever was in the ring with me today, there was no stopping me,' Sheeraz said afterward. 'The amount of abuse I got after the last fight made me a hungrier fighter.'
The difference in class and composure was evident. Berlanga's only claim to fame was going the distance with Álvarez in 2023. On Saturday, he was overwhelmed against the taller, rangier Briton who accomplished what Canelo couldn't. The power that once led him to 16 straight first-round knockouts never materialized, while his defense left wide gaps for Sheeraz to exploit. He has now been stopped for the first time in his career and leaves with more questions than answers about his future.
Sheeraz, on the other hand, looks like a genuine threat in a stacked weight class. His size, reach, and poise – not to mention his jab, which he used masterfully in the early rounds – suggest he belongs among the elite. Whether Álvarez, Benavidez or someone else will be next remains to be seen. But on a night where the crowd nearly filled the second deck of the 14,000-seat stadium, he managed to win them over despite the hometown credentials of his Brooklyn-bred victim.
In the co-feature bout, Shakur Stevenson turned in one of the more entertaining performances of his career, defeating Mexico's William Zepeda by unanimous decision to retain his WBC lightweight title. The ringside judges handed down scores of 119–109 and 118–110 (twice), but the fight was more spirited than the cards suggest.
Stevenson (24-0, 11 KOs) came into the ring under intense pressure to deliver a more fan-friendly performance after a widely panned win over Artem Harutyunyan last July. On Saturday, he answered that criticism by standing his ground, exchanging with one of the division's more aggressive fighters and showcasing both his technical mastery and his tenacity.
'I came in here to prove a point,' Stevenson said in the ring. 'It wasn't the performance I was looking for because I came in here to try and fight, so I took more punishment than usual. But I proved that I'm a dog.'
Zepeda (33-1, 27 KOs) landed more power punches on Stevenson than any previous opponent, including a hard straight right in the third round that appeared to stun the 2016 Olympic silver medallist. Yet Stevenson responded with poise and precision, unloading crisp counters and blinding combinations that repeatedly turned Zepeda's head and backed him up.
As early as the second round, Stevenson was standing in the pocket, trading head shots while slipping and rolling Zepeda's best body work in his signature Philly shell defense. In the middle rounds, he took over completely, doubling and tripling up on the jab, then following with sharp lefts and uppercuts.
Zepeda remained game, pressing forward and refusing to wilt, but Stevenson's craft gradually dismantled the Mexican's offense. By the 10th, the challenger's output had slowed and Stevenson began using his legs more sparingly, clinching only when absolutely necessary. For Stevenson, the fight marked a reassertion of dominance in a 135lb division where a unification bout with Gervonta Davis looms as one of the sport's most compelling matchups.
Earlier in the evening, Subriel Matías captured the vacant WBC super lightweight title with a majority decision over the previously unbeaten Alberto Puello, while Cuban light heavyweight David Morrell showed grit to rally from a fifth-round knockdown and edge Imam Khataev on a split decision.