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Alem Begic was ridiculously overmatched against Sheeraz.
six-rounder in April, in its top 10. I had an exchange with WBO president Gustavo Olivieri on X the day Sheeraz-Zachenhuber was announced with the rest of the undercard: @dougiefischer – Another German strudel for our man Hamzah. How the WBO green lights Zachenhuber, who dropped a 6-round decision three months ago, immediately after the Begic slaughter is beyond me.
10-round bout was a four- and six-round level boxer. The loss to Zachenhuber was Armin Ajrulai’s first 10 rounder. Was Ajrulai WBO rated? No answer from Olivieri, who I like and respect. He’s doing his best to operate the WBO with transparency and dignity. But he loves to champion the sanctioning bodies, especially on social media with a #BeltsMatter hashtag on daily posts. It’s OK for sanctioning bodies to take that position, but they have to make the belts matter. World title bouts involving guys like Begic and Zachenhuber don’t matter at all. Fans don’t care for gross mismatches, which can be extremely dangerous for the underdogs. And what’s Sheeraz getting out of pummeling guys not fit to be his sparring partners (apart from an unwanted “German Assassin” moniker)?
In December, the WBO and IBF will hold their first-ever unified convention in Orlando, Florida, with the goals of strengthening their partnership (in the face of the Zuffa Boxing “threat”) and aligning their rules for judging and refereeing. I hope they also spend quality time and effort going over their rankings and improving their criteria. I haven’t forgotten that Michael Eifert set the CompuBox record for the lowest punch-connect total (just 12) ever recorded in a 12-round fight en route to being shut out by light heavyweight champ Dmitry Bivol in May. Eifert, yet another undeserving German in a world title bout (though not nearly as bad as Begic and Zachenhuber), was the IBF’s mandatory challenger.
@OlivieriLaw – Doug, see Zachenhuber’s BoxRec as he recently and successfully fought a scheduled 10-round contest on June 27, 2026. Regards. @dougiefischer – I see that but he’s still one bout removed from fighting in a six-rounder - and losing. I also see that the guy he stopped in the scheduled
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