The humble Brit obliterated the trash-talking Berlanga in the Brooklyn native’s proverbial backyard and emphatically answered questions about whether he could respond to pressure.. His career-changing victory provided evidence that Sheeraz indeed needed to move up from 160 pounds, the weight at which he fought WBC middleweight champ Carlos Adames to a controversial draw less than five months earlier, to the super middleweight limit of 168.

Battering Berlanga more impressively than Canelo Alvarez handled him the previous September thrust Sheeraz into contention. Terence Crawford beat Alvarez two months later, yet Sheeraz remained a logical potential opponent for the Mexican superstar, who has long expressed a desire to partake in a big fight in England.

Much of the support Sheeraz earned from fans and media has dwindled, however, because he hasn’t fought in the more than 10 months that have passed since he knocked out Berlanga in the fifth round July 12 in the main event of a Ring card in New York.

That’s what makes Sheeraz’s fight against Alem Begic so important for the 26-year-old contender Saturday night at the Pyramids of Giza, near Cairo, Egypt. Not only will Sheeraz (22-0-1, 18 KOs) and Germany’s Begic (29-0-1, 23 KOs) box in the co-feature before undefeated, unified heavyweight champ Oleksandr Usyk faces kickboxing legend Rico Verhoeven, they’ll fight for the WBO belt Crawford vacated when he announced his retirement six months ago.

Winning that WBO belt will help make Sheeraz an appealing option for Alvarez if the former undisputed super middleweight champ beats WBC titleholder Christian Mbilli on September 12 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It would also afford Sheeraz options other than Alvarez should the Guadalajara native lose to Mbilli or choose a different opponent.

Sheeraz shouldn’t have much trouble re-establishing the buzz beating Berlanga so spectacularly created against Begic. Even Begic seemed surprised during a press conference Thursday that he drew this dangerous assignment.

The 39-year-old contender is in over his head and all but admitted it while discussing this career-defining fight with a proven puncher who is listed as a 25-1 favorite to win a fight DAZN will stream live via pay-per-view and to subscribers of its monthly Ultimate plan.

This mismatch isn’t Sheeraz’s fault, mind you. The WBO ordered him to face an opponent who is almost 40 and still untested against championship-caliber opponents.

It’s nevertheless Sheeraz’s responsibility to beat Begic in a manner similar to how he embarrassed Berlanga. It’s the surest way, after such a long layoff, to re-establish some of the momentum he lost and again get in position to face Alvarez.

If Turki Alalshikh can’t convince Usyk to finally fight Agit Kabayel after the 25-1 favorite faces Verhoeven, the WBC should strip the unbeaten Ukrainian.

Mauricio Sulaiman’s sanctioning organization should’ve already followed the lead of the WBO, which wasted no time taking its championship from Usyk when he declined to make a mandated defense against Fabio Wardley. The WBC instead sanctioned Usyk-Verhoeven as a heavyweight title fight.

The former fully unified champion clearly can fight whomever he wants, even a kickboxer who hasn’t participated in a boxing match in 12 years. Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs) is also the best heavyweight in boxing until someone proves otherwise, a generational great who has nothing left to prove in a ring.

But if he is going to continue calling himself the heavyweight champion, how many interim titleholders or contenders is he allowed to dismiss as potential opponents? We’re up to three, for those counting at home — Wardley, Kabayel and Moses Itauma.

Shakhram Giyasov will battle a more complex opponent than WBA welterweight champ Rolando “Rolly” Romero on the Usyk-Verhoeven undercard.

At least, though, Giyasov’s fight against British southpaw Jack Catterall will afford the unbeaten Uzbek contender his long-overdue shot at a version of the WBA belt. Giyasov should’ve already fought Romero, whose handlers have had trouble finalizing deals with higher-profile opponents.

Now that this emotional moment has arrived, Giyasov (17-0, 10 KOs) has an opportunity to fulfill the championship promise he made to his late daughter before the infant died from a rare brain condition in March 2025.

■ If Ryan Garcia is going to make his first defense of the WBC welterweight title against Conor Benn on September 12 in Las Vegas, as he announced during an appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Monday, he clearly isn’t interested in his unfinished business with Devin Haney and Romero. Boxing in England would be more understandable because Garcia-Benn would do better business there than in the United States. A Garcia-Haney rematch is more marketable in the U.S. A rematch with Romero would sell well in the U.S., too, considering how convincingly he beat the heavily favored Garcia a year ago in the main event of The Ring’s show at Times Square in New York.

■ Speaking of Itauma, Filip Hrgovic seems like a reasonable, legitimate challenge as the emerging English star builds his way toward a title shot. The Croatian contender, ranked No. 5 by The Ring, is dangerous enough to provide more resistance than Dillian Whyte and Jermaine Franklin, yet flawed enough due to conditioning and cut concerns to be viewed as a safe choice as the sixth-ranked Itauma’s opponent August 8.

■ We should all be thankful for the peace of mind we’ve been afforded by the recent announcement that the Floyd Mayweather-Mike Tyson exhibition has only been postponed, not canceled altogether.