On Jul. 11, 2025, boxing was back in Queens, NY, courtesy of Turki Al-Sheikh, the influential Saudi Arabian sports promoter, who hosts events in the U.S., UK, and Saudi Arabia.
It was a spectacular fight card, headlined by two co-main events at the Louis Armstrong Stadium. Three weight division world champion and current WBC lightweight (135 lbs.) champion Shakur Stevenson (24-0, 11KOS) successfully defended his title against his number one contender William Zepeda (33-1, 27KOs). The other headliner was former world title challenger Brooklyn’s Edgar Berlanga (23-2,18KOs), who was knocked out by England’s Hamzah Sheeraz (22-0-1, 18KOs).
Both co-main events did not disappoint and the undercard fights were just as exciting. Shakur has faced a lot criticism for his past few fights because he didn’t win them in a spectacular fashion. Fans generally want knockouts or stoppages and not decision wins. While Shakur is capable of making a knockout, he is more inclined to outbox his opponents and win his matches with decision victories.
Shakur has been lobbying for a fight against his fellow rival champion popular WBA lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis for the past couple of years. Last Saturday, Shakur made a very good case for why he should get the “Big Fight” against Tank by defeating the very tough Zepeda over 12 rounds.
Zepeda was arguably the best fighter Shakur had ever faced to date, clearly having come to win, not just to be an opponent for a paycheck. But over 12 rounds, Shakur outboxed Zepeda, used the ring well to evade punches, although he stood to fought Zepeda when necessary and was declared the winner after 12 rounds. One of the three judges scored the fight 119-109 for Shakur, while the other two judges scored the fight 118-110 for him. Shakur again called for a fight against “Tank” at the post fight press conference.
Shakur must now wait for the rematch between Tank vs. Lamont Roach, which is now set for Aug. 16, 2025, but reports are that Tank’s promoters may delay the fight until Aug. 23 or 30, due to some alleged personal issues Tank is facing.
Unlike Shakur, Edgar Berlanga is from New York. Berlanga was given a figurative stage to shine last Saturday for his match in the 168 lbs. division against Hamzah Sheeraz which was the last of the card. Popular Rappers “Fat Joe” and “Remy Ma” rapped as they escorted Berlanga to the ring. The bout against Sheeraz was Berlanga attempting to work his way back to a rematch with “Face of Boxing.” Saul “Canelo” Alvarez whom he fought two fights prior and reportedly made a “boat load” of money. In Berlanga’s last fight he defeated Jonathan Ortiz Gonzalez in one round with a knockout. Berlanga berated and disrespected Sheeraz during the promotion of their match. To Sheeraz’s credit, publicly he remained calm, focused, and was a gentleman through all of Berlanga’s disrespect and odd antics.
From the first round, Sheeraz established control of the fight with his jab and height advantage which Berlanga had no way to counter. Sheeraz’s momentum continued to grow as the fight progressed resulting in two devastating knockdowns in the 4th round. Berlanga beat each 10 count and went to his corner appearing to be badly hurt. At the start of the 5th round it was clear Berlanga had not recovered from the effects of the previous two rounds and was visibly struggling to focus.
Sheeraz seized the moment with a series of punches leading to a third and final knockdown. The referee had seen enough and waived the fight off awarding Sheeraz the upset and shocking victory.
The time of the stoppage was 17 seconds into the 5th round. Even though New York is Berlanga’s hometown and Sheeraz is from the UK, the victor was cheered not booed from the audience. This was no doubt because of his spectacular performance. With the win over Berlanga, Sheeraz is now the mandatory number one contender for Undisputed Super middleweight champion WBC title now held by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. In the post-fight interview Sheeraz expressed a desire to fight “Canelo” should he defeat multi-division world champion Terrance Crawford in September.
In another exciting fight WBC (140 lbs.) junior welterweight champion Alberto Puello (24-1, 10 KOs) of the Dominican Republic defended his world title against former IBF junior welterweight champion Subriel Matias (23-2, 22 KOs) of Puerto Rico. Puello vs. Matias could have easily been on an entire separate card as this was an excellent fight. These fighters fought “toe to toe” as the expression goes. For those of us who are old enough to be familiar with a phone booth from the 1990s before everyone had cell phones currently, this fight could have been fought in a phone booth and a boxing ring was not needed! From the sound of the first bell it was non-stop “toe to toe” action until the sound of the final bell in the 12th round. The three judges scored the fight a majority decision in favor of Matias making him a two-time world champion. One judge had the fight 114-114, while the other two judges scored the fight 115-113 for Matias.
Haiti Liberté scored the fight seven out of the twelve rounds for Puello. Compubox appears to support our view and the judges’ on the fight’s winner, as Puello outlanded Matias 267 punches to 255 total punches.
In another fight exciting light-heavyweight fight, former two division champion David Morrell (12-1, 9 KOs) fought Imam Khataev (10-1, 9 KOs). Morrell was trying to rebound from his loss to WBC light heavyweight champion David Benavidez. Imam Khataev was fighting with a cloud over his head for testing positive for a Performance Enhancing Substance (PED) by the International Testing Agency back in 2024 and would have been suspended for two years, but had been cleared to fight by the Association of Boxing Commissions.
This was a good back and forth fight from the first bell, with both fighters throwing heavy punches. Morrell had said he would box more, which he tried to do. Khataev was able to score a knockdown near the end of the 5th round, but Morrell was able to rebound. Both fighters had their moments in this fight.
At the end of the fight the Judge’s scorecards were: 95-94 for Khataev, while the other two judges had it 96-93 and 95-94 for Morrell. Haïti Liberté scored the fight seven rounds out of 12 for Khataev.
In other bouts, light-weight Reito Tsutsumi of Tokyo (2-0, 1 KO) scored a knockout victory over Michael Ruiz (2-4-1) of Toms River, NJ in the second round.
In a super lightweight fight Mohammed Alakel (5-0) defeated Placido Hoff (2-4-1) of Providence, RI via decision.
Contact Writer: Rluvsboxing@aol.com
