Hamzah Sheeraz and Andy Lee won’t be easing into their partnership in their first fight together.
Sheeraz has the tall task of
facing Edgar Berlanga in a WBC super middleweight title eliminator on July 12 in the main event of The Ring’s “Ring III” pay-per-view show at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York, on DAZN PPV. The fight will be Sheeraz’s first at super middleweight and with Lee as his trainer.
So far, Sheeraz (21-0-1, 17 KOs) and Lee have been on the same page as they prepare for
Berlanga (23-1, 18 KOs) on July 12.
“I've gelled with Andy really well,” Sheeraz said on Queensberry Promotion’s All-Access. “I'm not just saying that. Most people watching might think I'm just saying it, but I'm genuinely saying I've never got along with a coach like I have with Andy. It's really easy. I do what he says, even outside the ring when we go for walks or whatnot. He's a good guy.”
Sheeraz, 26, made the switch from longtime trainer Ricky Funez to Lee after
his split draw with WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames on Feb. 22 in Saudi Arabia. The table appeared set for Sheeraz to cement himself as one of the best middleweights in the world and add to his streak of 15 straight stoppages. Instead, many believe Sheeraz was the beneficiary a draw as he was outboxed by Adames for a majority of the 12-round fight.
Needing a change, Sheeraz found his way to Dublin, Ireland, where he ran into Lee. For Lee, who also has
Joseph Parker and Ben Whittaker in his stable, the chance to train Sheeraz was one he jumped at.
“He's a world-class fighter,” Lee said. “It's a privilege and an honor to be asked to train somebody like that already. He's already into a big fight, and when he wins this one, the amount of options he's gonna have — it was an exciting project for me. I could see the potential in his size and with the little tweaks to his technique, what he could become.”
One could say that Lee, a former middleweight champion, was destined to become a trainer long before he ever decided to become one. For the majority of his career, he fought under the tutelage of Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward, who donned the famous “Kronk” style. The Kronk style rose to prominence, particularly with the rise of Thomas Hearns, boxing’s first four-division champion. Steward trained numerous Hall of Famers and former champions, including Lennox Lewis and Wladimir Klitschko.
At 6-foot-3 with a 75-inch reach, Sheeraz’s frame is similar to Hearns, who stood at 6-1 and had a 78-inch reach. With the physical similarities, applying the Kronk style has been among the many changes Sheeraz has implemented in his preparation for Berlanga.
“He's corrected a lot of things,” Sheeraz said. “You hear all the time, stripping stuff back to the basics and whatnot, but it well and truly is. He was taught the Kronk style of fighting, and he's teaching me that with a twist of what he likes to do, as well as what I like to do. It's not [that] you have to do what he says. He lets you be yourself. He lets you be who you are as a fighter. He doesn't change that. He just adds to it.”