Queensberry Promotions has won the WBO purse bid to stage Hamzah Sheeraz’s super-middleweight title defence against mandatory challenger Janibek Alimkhanuly. Frank Warren’s company bid $1,001,809, comfortably beating Top Rank’s offer of $820,000; the minimum bid was $300,000.
Under the WBO’s standard 75-25 split in favour of the champion, Sheeraz stands to receive roughly $750,000 of the purse, with Alimkhanuly entitled to the remaining 25 percent. Queensberry has proposed staging the fight on either November 28 or December 5, 2026, with London, Birmingham and New York listed as possible venues. A confirmed date, venue and start time have not yet been announced.
Sheeraz, 27, won the vacant WBO belt in May with a second-round stoppage of Alem Begić and defended it in July with a majority decision over Simon Zachenhuber. The British fighter is unbeaten at 24-0-1 with 19 knockouts.
Alimkhanuly, a former two-belt middleweight champion from Kazakhstan, is 17-0 with 12 knockouts. He was stripped of his IBF 160lb title in March and vacated his WBO middleweight belt in July to pursue a ranking at 168lb, where the WBO subsequently installed him as Sheeraz’s mandatory challenger.
