England’s Sheeraz defeated Simon Zachenhuber on points Saturday night, but their dull 12-round, 168-pound championship match amounted to a stylistic struggle for the WBO super middleweight champ on the Anthony Joshua-Kristian Prenga undercard at Jeddah Superdome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Judge Antonio Marogna scored it a draw (114-114), but Nermin Adrovic (116-112) and Valerio Mosca (115-113) ensured Sheeraz won a majority decision.

Sheeraz (24-0-1, 19 KOs) beat Zachenhuber (29-2, 18 KOs) just nine weeks after he won his WBO belt by knocking out Begic (29-1-1, 23 KOs) in the second round May 23 at Pyramids of Giza in Giza, Egypt.

A sluggish Sheeraz seemed content this time around to press the action against a cautious southpaw without truly committing to knocking out an opponent DraftKings listed him as a 25-1 favorite to beat. Zachenhuber, meanwhile, didn’t appear to have much pop on his punches and didn’t land any punches that should’ve deterred Sheeraz

The 27-year-old Sheeraz, ranked No. 9 among The Ring’s super middleweight contenders, was expected to beat Zachenhuber more impressively because the huge underdog lost a six-round decision to Pawel August on April 11 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Zachenhuber somehow slipped just one spot in the WBO’s rankings – from No. 6 to No. 7 – after August upset him and secured this title shot after defeating countryman Armin Ajrulai (10-3, 4 KOs) by technical knockout following four rounds June 28 in Cologne.

August (18-1, 7 KOs) lost an eight-round unanimous decision to Denmark’s Jacob Bank (20-0, 11 KOs) earlier on the Joshua-Prenga undercard.

He was ineligible to fight for Sheeraz’s title because August never entered the WBO’s top 15 after defeating Zachenhuber. Bank is ranked No. 2 by the WBO and criticized Sheeraz for not fighting him Saturday night.

Sheeraz drilled Zachenhuber with a right uppercut in the ninth round, but Zachenhuber took that shot well and prevented Sheeraz from landing a comparable punishing punch in any of the last three rounds.

After failing to land many power punches in the seventh and eighth rounds, Sheeraz stung Zachenhuber with a right uppercut about 1:15 into the ninth.

Zachenhuber was more offensive minded in the seventh round and landed more punches than in prior rounds.

Sheeraz pressed the action against a wary Zachenhuber throughout the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds. He couldn’t connect with any fight-altering punches during those nine minutes, however, and allowed Zachenhuber to reach the second half of their scheduled 12-rounder.

A straight left by Zachenhuber landed with just under a minute to go in the third round. Sheeraz’s right uppercut to Zachenhuber’s body landed with 1:20 to go in the third.

Zachenhuber’s right hook caught Sheeraz with under 30 seconds on the clock in the second round. Sheeraz snuck a hard left to the body around Zachenhuber’s guard 25 seconds into the second.

A patient Sheeraz stalked Zachenhuber during the first round, when the cautious challenger kept out of Sheeraz’s range throughout the opening three minutes of their fight.