Hamzah Sheeraz is plotting an assault on the super middleweight scene after failing in his attempt to win the WBC title at 160lbs last month.

The 25-year-old faced Carlos Adames for his belt at The Venue Riyadh Season on February 22 but the champion retained his title after a controversial split draw.

Sheeraz, who injured his hand early in the encounter, remained undefeated as a result but his promoter Frank Warren described his fighter as ‘very fortunate to get the draw’.

It had looked as though the Ilford man might be handed an immediate rematch and a second crack at the world middleweight title but he will now be heading in a different direction.

The 6ft 3in puncher will instead move up to super-middleweight and attempt to win a world title there. Ring Magazine champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, who holds the WBC, WBA and WBO belts, will make his Riyadh Season debut on May 3 when he takes on IBF champion William Scull in a super-middleweight undisputed clash.

But Sheeraz will look to position himself for a shot at the winner once he returns to full fitness following his hand injury.

Warren told Ring Magazine: “It was killing him to make middleweight and that was part of the problem. You’ve only got to look at his height to see that. I don’t know how he did the weight, he is just getting bigger and bigger. So he will move up now.

“On the night, I think the weight was a problem for him and then his hand too. It just wasn’t all there for him. He was very fortunate to get the draw but now we move on. He was dead at the weight so how he managed to still box like that in the last few rounds I’ll never know.”

Boxxer boss Ben Shalom recently suggested that Sheeraz could take on his British and Commonwealth super-middleweight champion Callum Simpson. The 28-year-old from Barnsley is ranked inside the top 10 with three of the four sanctioning bodies and is currently on hunt for a big-name opponent for an outdoor show at Oakwell this summer.

But, when asked whether he would consider making that fight for Sheeraz next, Warren said: “There are loads of options in that division. It’s too soon to worry about who he’s going to fight yet, it’s just about getting his hand better.

“It’s Ramadan at the moment and he busted his hand up so it is a chance for him to let it recover. He will be out again in June.

“Then it is about positioning. Below Canelo it is a free-for-all in the rankings. My hope is that Hamzah Sheeraz can establish himself as a big star of the division and if he’s more comfortable at the weight then that’s exactly what he will do.”