Berlanga vs Sheeraz: Fight time, undercard, latest odds, prediction, ring walks

The WBC super-middleweight title eliminator headlines the ‘Ring III’ card also featuring Shakur Stevenson’s latest WBC lightweight championship defence against William Zepeda.

It will be the first time that boxing has ever taken place at Louis Armstrong Stadium, the 14,000-capacity venue at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows that usually forms part of the host venues for the US Open, with The Ring continuing to break new ground after May’s event in Times Square featuring Ryan Garcia, Rolly Romero, Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez.

Ilford’s Sheeraz, the former European, Commonwealth and WBC Silver middleweight champion, is moving up to the 168-pound division ruled by Canelo Alvarez for the first time after seeing his run of 21 consecutive victories – including 15 straight knockouts – since turning professional ended by a controversial split draw with WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames in Riyadh back in February.

Sheeraz seemed incredibly fortunate to avoid his first career defeat on the undercard of the blockbuster rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol, later revealing that his swollen left hand was broken early on in an uncharacteristically tentative performance that saw one judge return a scorecard of 118-110 in Adames’ favour.

Sheeraz, now trained by Andy Lee after parting ways with Ricky Funez, was always a huge middleweight and now jumps up a division to take on Berlanga, the American who is still on the comeback trail after suffering his first loss when challenging Canelo for the unified titles at 168 pounds in Las Vegas last September.

Brooklyn’s ‘Chosen One’ was dominated in that bout and lost a wide decision, but bounced back emphatically with a first-round stoppage of Jonathan Gonzalez-Ortiz in Florida in March having missed weight by 1.6 pounds.

Berlanga was hoping to face Jaime Munguia, Jermall Charlo or Caleb Plant next, but instead now has his sights set on a rematch against Canelo – this time for undisputed status with the winner of this weekend’s bout set to become the No1 contender for the WBC title he holds alongside the WBA, WBO and The Ring belts, plus the IBF gold he previously vacated but then regained by brushing aside former mandatory challenger William Scull in Riyadh in May.