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Weekend Recap: Hamzah Sheeraz Achieves Stunning KO Over Edgar Berlanga, Shakur Stevenson Reclaims And Exceeds Lost Reputation With Win Over William Zepeda

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Hamzah Sheeraz has become the WBC mandatory at super middleweight after achieving a surprise knockout victory over Puerto Rican opponent Edgar Berlanga. (Photo by Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy/Getty Images)

The Ring’s third-ever boxing event arguably became the best card held as headliners Hamzah Sheeraz and Edgar Berlanga, as well as co-headliners Shakur Stevenson and William Zepeda, oversaw stupendous wins. With a further complement of other stars involved in world title fight, the mega card very much delivered on the hype surrounding it. The Ring III card was hosted at the Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York, on Saturday, July 12th.

Hamzah Sheeraz vs. Edgar Berlanga

Staged as the main event of The Ring card, super middleweight (168 lbs) contenders Hamzah Sheeraz (22-0-1, 18 KO’s), from the UK, and Puerto Rican fighter Edgar Berlanga (23-2, 18 KO’s) clashed in a WBC final eliminator.

The fight seemed evenly-contested in the beginning, with Berlanga doing well in the first two rounds in closing the distance and taking away Sheeraz’ most prominent weapon; his jab. The 3rd round appeared too close of a call to outright dictate a winner, with Sheeraz doing well to land several power punches while Berlanga himself got in a few lethal shots.

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Struggling to offload his jab, Hamzah Sheeraz (L) found the most success catching Edgar Berlanga (R) with well-timed and powerful counters. (Photo by Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy/Getty Images)

However, the entire pace of the fight changed in the 4th round when a power punch from Sheeraz clearly wobbled the Puerto Rican contender. A slew of combinations followed, allowing the British fighter to drop Berlanga. Berlanga beat the count but was on the floor again not long after to place his chances into jeopardy.

In the 5th round, Edgar Berlanga was clearly too damaged to do anything substantial as Hamzah Sheeraz continued beating down the Puerto Rican fighter to leave him wobbling. 17 seconds into the bout, the referee stepped in to culminate in Sheeraz winning by stoppage ― though officially his win would be denoted as a knockout (KO) victory.

Now the WBC mandatory in the 168-pound division, Sheeraz will have to wait until the conclusion of the September 12th bout between undisputed champion Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford, but already seems in pole position to challenge for a title depending on the result of the aforementioned contest.

Co-main event & undercard fights

In the co-main event, WBC lightweight (135 lbs) champion Shakur Stevenson (24-0, 11 KO’s) recouped the reputation lost following the fallout of his 2023 win over Edwin De Los Santos by soundly defeating #1-rated Mexican contender William Zepeda (33-1, 27 KO’s).

Having been the subject of The Ring owner Turki Alalshikh’s playful barbs for his reputation of “running”, Stevenson sought to prove a point as he did the exact opposite and lingered in the pocket with Zepeda ― who’s well known for his efficiency up close due to his tendency to throw volume punches.

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The WBC lightweight title bout between challenger William Zepeda (R) and champion Shakur Stevenson (L) very much spelled out the difference between quality and quantity as Zepeda ended up landing less punches than Stevenson, despite throwing vastly more. (Photo by Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy/Getty Images)

Despite Zepeda’s attributes shining best on the inside, he failed to do anything significant as a majority of shots were blocked or avoided by Stevenson. Whilst keeping his defensive poise and fundamentals, Shakur Stevenson countered Zepeda perfectly throughout the entirety of the 12 rounds while remaining close to the Mexican fighter.

Zepeda had some mild success with several punches landing, though was crippled by his own lower defensive standards as Stevenson’s shots hit the mark more, despite him throwing less. Proving to be nigh-unstoppable on the counter, Stevenson carved out a deserved unanimous decision (UD) win [118-110 twice and 119-109] to retain his WBC belt and arguably distinguish himself as the best fighter in the division.


At light-heavyweight (175 lbs), Cuban contender David Morrell (12-1, 9 KO’s) and Australian-Russian fighter Imam Khataev (10-1, 9 KO’s) engaged in an extremely close-knit contest. Knocked down once in the 5th round of their 10-round fight, Morrell seemed to undergo a resurgence in the latter half of the fight to narrowly win the contest by split-decision (SD) through scores of 96-93 and 95-94, with Khataev receiving a 95-94 score himself.


Known for his short punches that tend to be thrown in volume and has culminated in a 100% KO ratio over all his wins, Matias was the more active fighter as opposed to Puello who sought to keep his distance and box from the outside while countering Matias where able.

Not much separated the two when it came to landed and thrown punches, with Puello arguably doing the better work by landing more jabs and power punches, yet the Dominican Republic native would suffer his first career loss as Matias was announced the winner by split-decision to become the new WBC 140-pound champion. Matias netted a close win according to two judges who scored the fight 115-113 in his favor, while a single judge ruled the fight a 114-114 draw.

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