Hamzah Sheeraz hammers Edgar Berlanga to advance his case for a shot at Canelo Alvarez | Boxing News
Hamzah Sheeraz moved to mid-world weights and stopped Edgar Berlanga, with a boxing event held at the Louis Armstrong stadium, the US Open tennis tournament house.
Sheeraz, making his debut in the United States, interrupted Berlanga in the fifth round.
“Massive and massive performances on my part,” said Sheeraz.
The Englishman showed that he still had power at 168 pounds, dropping Berlanga twice in the fourth round, then jumped quickly to start the fifth before referee David Fields ends the fight.
Sheeraz was lucky to escape with a draw during his last fight, an average WBC weight title fight with Carlos Adames. But with this last performance, the Briton advanced his case for a shot to the world champion of undisputed super-media Canelo Alvarez.
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Ballowing facts of the WBC world title fight between Hamzah Sheeraz and Carlos Adames which ended with a disputed decision
Berlanga had taken the distance from Canelo in his only previous defeat.
In the fourth round, Sheeraz dropped Berlanga flat on his back. Berlanga raised his arms in the air, perhaps trying to show that he was not injured, but Sheeraz overturned him a second time in the area before the bell rolled up to finish the Tour.
But it did not take long once the fifth started, when a three -stroke combination unbalanced Berlanga and one of his gloves touched the canvas while Fields agitated him.
“Today, nothing stopped me,” said Sheeraz.
Shakur Stevenson remained unbeaten and defended his WBC light title with a dominant display, beating William Zepeda by unanimous decision.
Stevenson won 119-109 on a map and 118-110 on the other two. Zepeda won a left hand shortly after the opening bell which pulled a smile from the champion, and he was able to penetrate several times to unload a series of shots in Stevenson. But he was often powerless to prevent the rapid gusts from coming back to him.
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Protective facts of WBC worldwide world title fight between Shakur Stevenson and Josh Padley from February
Stevenson seemed happy to exchange blows and most of the time, he came out of the front when he did.
“At the end of the day, I told you all, anyway to do the work,” said Stevenson. “I have a dog in me. I’m not a puppy, I’m not a poodle, I’m a hard to cook, so I have a dog in me.”
Zepeda trampled Stevenson in a corner to score with a few shots in the third round, bringing his Mexican fans out of their seats, but generally the movement of Stevenson’s head allowed him to dodge potential problems. In the middle of the fight, Stevenson was pulling two, three, sometimes four unsuccessful shots
There was a change of title when SOUTRIEL MATIAS preceded Alberto PUELLO by the majority of decision to make the WBC super-light belt.
Before that, Cuban David Morrell got up a fifth round knockdown to reach the end and Edge Imam Khataev by shared decision in a light weight fight.
