WBO president Gustavo Olivieri has hit back hard at Hamzah Sheeraz, flatly rejecting the champion’s claim that “corruption” lies behind Janibek Alimkhanuly being installed as his mandatory challenger at super middleweight.
The row cuts to the heart of boxing’s credibility: a recent drug failure, a fast-tracked contender, and a reigning champion accusing a sanctioning body of betraying the sport.
Sheeraz blasts “disgraceful” decision
Sheeraz, the unbeaten WBO super middleweight titleholder, did not tiptoe around his feelings when speaking to Ariel Helwani on Uncrowned.
“I think it’s a joke,” he said, ripping into the organization’s move to name Alimkhanuly as his mandatory despite the Kazakh never having boxed at 168 pounds and recently failing a VADA test.
“I think what the WBO have done here is disgraceful to the sport of boxing. What they’re essentially doing is rewarding someone who has [tested positive], so to me, it doesn’t make sense.
“What the WBO have done here — to me, it’s corrupt,” he continued. “And I’ll say it as it is, I feel like it’s all based off relationships. These moves being made are all based off personal relationships or whatever it may be, because it’s come out of nowhere and is extremely not right for the sport of boxing.”
Those comments landed directly on Olivieri’s desk. Uncrowned went back to the WBO for a response. The president did not duck.
Olivieri: “Unequivocally disagree”
“I respectfully but unequivocally disagree with his assertions, particularly any suggestion of ‘corruption,’ improper ‘motives,’ or decisions influenced by ‘personal relationships,’” Olivieri told Uncrowned.
Behind that firm denial, the WBO moved to lay out its case in detail, attempting to separate Alimkhanuly’s situation from some of the sport’s more notorious recent doping sagas.
Alimkhanuly, the former unified WBO and IBF middleweight champion, tested positive with VADA for a banned substance just days before a planned three-belt unification with Erislandy Lara in December. The fight was scrapped. The Kazakh never walked to the ring.
That, Olivieri argued, is a crucial distinction.
“First, Zhanibek never stepped inside the ring in connection with the anti-doping matter,” he said. “The bout did not proceed. That fact materially distinguishes his case from other circumstances, including Ryan Garcia vs. Devin Haney, where the contest actually occurred and the anti-doping findings arose in connection with a completed championship bout. These are fundamentally different factual circumstances and should not be treated as interchangeable cases.”
The WBO suspended Alimkhanuly, then later cut that suspension short. For Sheeraz, that sequence looked like leniency leading straight into a reward. For Olivieri, it was the tail end of a disciplinary process that, in his view, had already gone further than the local authority.
First-time offender, longer ban, early end
“Second, Zhanibek was a first-time offender,” Olivieri said. During the disciplinary proceedings, he noted, Alimkhanuly presented mitigating circumstances and “supporting medical evidence” for the WBO to weigh.
The Kazakhstan Professional Boxing Federation (KPBF) initially hit Alimkhanuly with a six‑month suspension. The WBO went heavier, doubling that term. When it announced the ban, the organization said it reserved the right to modify it, and later did so “following the WBO’s review of the complete record, including Zhanibek’s cooperation and compliance with the relevant conditions.”
By the time the WBO lifted its suspension, Olivieri maintains, the matter was closed. From that point, he insists, the doping case had “no bearing” on whether Alimkhanuly could be named mandatory challenger at 168 pounds.
That is where the second front of this dispute opens: not just whether Alimkhanuly deserved to be reinstated, but whether he ever should have been fast-tracked into a mandatory spot in a division he has yet to touch.
The WBO’s “tradition” of fast-tracking champions
Inside sanctioning-body politics, this is familiar ground. The WBO argues that Alimkhanuly’s leap to the front of the queue at super middleweight is not an outlier, but part of a longstanding policy.
The organization has long allowed recent WBO champions to move up or down in weight and receive preferential consideration, sometimes being installed as mandatory challengers without a single fight in the new division.
Olivieri pointed to Keyshawn Davis as a prime example. Davis lost his WBO lightweight title in June 2025, then climbed to super lightweight and boxed twice in non-title bouts. From there, he jumped again, this time to welterweight, where he was ranked No. 1 and later named mandatory challenger for Devin Haney — despite never having fought at 147 pounds.
Davis is not a perfect parallel to Alimkhanuly, but Olivieri leaned on that case to show the WBO’s pattern: recent champions, even those not in ideal standing after recent events, can still be vaulted into mandatory positions when they change divisions.
In other words, from the WBO’s perspective, Alimkhanuly’s résumé at 160 pounds opened the door at 168.
Why Alimkhanuly over Jacob Bank?
Numbers matter here. So do names.
Alimkhanuly stands at 17-0 with 12 knockouts, a former unified middleweight champion who held both the WBO and IBF belts. Jacob Bank, unbeaten at 20-0 with 11 KOs, is the other leading contender at super middleweight.
On paper, Bank brings the cleaner recent record at 168. On pedigree, Olivieri believes the comparison is lopsided.
The WBO president argued that Alimkhanuly is the stronger mandatory candidate based on what he has already achieved at world level, and that Bank’s résumé “was not comparable” to the Kazakh’s body of work.
That is the WBO’s justification: a completed suspension, a first-time offense, a cooperation record they say they verified, and a champion’s track record that, by their rules, earns him a fast lane into another division.
A decision that won’t quiet the noise
For Sheeraz, none of that changes the central point. In his eyes, a fighter who recently failed a test has been rewarded with the biggest opportunity in his new division, without proving himself at the weight. He sees relationships and politics. The WBO sees precedent and process.
Olivieri has made his stance clear: the case is closed, the suspension is over, and Alimkhanuly is a fully eligible mandatory.
Now the question moves from boardrooms to the ring. Will Sheeraz defend against a man he believes should never have been in that position — or will this be the next flashpoint in boxing’s long, bitter fight over who really gets to decide the order of contenders?
