The WBC middleweight champion officially left the ring with a split draw on his record a year ago in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The strong support he received from media and fans afterward made Adames more comfortable with the controversial result, even if it still allows Sheeraz to call himself undefeated.

There was no doubt about the outcome of Sheeraz’s following fight, a fifth-round knockout of trash-talking Edgar Berlanga on July 12 in the main event of “The Ring III” at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York. The heavy-handed, 6-foot-4 Sheeraz dropped Berlanga twice in the fourth round and finished off his disoriented opponent early in the fifth.

England’s Sheeraz (22-0-1, 18 KOs) made an emphatic statement in his super middleweight debut, yet Adames wasn’t impressed. The Dominican champion doesn’t consider Brooklyn’s Berlanga (23-2, 18 KOs) a championship-caliber fighter and sees Sheeraz’s easy victory as simply something he should’ve done against an inferior foe.

“To be honest, that didn’t surprise me at all,” Adames told The Ring. “The reason why was Berlanga is a trash-talker. He’s a B-side opponent. He’s not an elite champion. So, it looks like more for Sheeraz than it is. It was a good fight [for Sheeraz], for good money. But that victory means nothing for me.”

Adames (24-1-1, 18 KOs), who soundly defeated Sheeraz 118-110 on one of the scorecards in February 2025, would welcome a rematch if Adames were to move up to the super middleweight division. For now, however, Las Vegas’ Adames is intent to demonstrate he is levels above Austin “Ammo” Williams (20-1, 13 KOs), his opponent Saturday night in a 12-round main event DAZN will stream from Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida (8 p.m. ET).

Milwaukee’s Williams has been beaten only by Sheeraz, who stopped him in the 11th round of their June 2024 bout in Riyadh.

Adames, more than a 3-1 favorite according to DraftKings, was initially scheduled to square off with Williams on January 31 at Madison Square Garden in New York. However, the extremely dehydrated champion cramped badly, couldn’t safely get down to 160 pounds and pulled out of their fight on “The Ring 6” undercard just before he was supposed to weigh in January 30.

Adames, 31, is The Ring’s No. 1 contender for its vacant middleweight title. Williams is ranked eighth by The Ring and third by the WBC.

Sheeraz, 26, is rated eighth among The Ring’s super middleweight contenders for a 168-pound crown that is also unclaimed.