Queensberry Wins WBO Purse Bid for Sheeraz vs Janibek Fight

The will-they, won’t-they dance over Hamzah Sheeraz vs Janibek Alimkhanuly just took a meaningful step toward the ring. Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions have won the WBO purse bid for the super middleweight title fight, tabling a little over $1 million and edging out Top Rank’s offer of $820,000, according to ESPN.

It’s not a contract signed and sealed, but it is a clear statement. Warren now controls the show – and he’s already drawing up the map.

London is in the frame. So is Birmingham. And, intriguingly, so is New York. Three very different backdrops for a fight that would pit one of Britain’s rising stars against one of the division’s most avoided operators.

The dates on the table are November 28 or December 5, both late-year slots that would drop a genuine world-title clash into the thick of the winter schedule.

The negotiations, the venue politics, the broadcast wrangling – all of that still has to fall into place. But with Queensberry winning the bid, the momentum finally swings toward seeing Sheeraz and Janibek share a ring rather than just a headline.