Purse bids took place Wednesday for their proposed WBO super middleweight championship clash. Queensberry Promotions, Sheeraz’s promoter, submitted a winning bid of $1,001,809. Top Rank, Alimkhanuly’s handlers, was the only other bidder, coming in at $820,000. The possible dates for their bout are November 28 and December 5, with London and New York the possible locations.

The ball is now in champion Sheeraz’s court. The Ring’s No. 9-ranked 168-pounder has been noncommittal on the idea of fighting the Kazakh.

Heading into his middleweight unification bout against Erislandy Lara in December 2025, Alimkhanuly, who held both the IBF and WBO belts, failed a pre-fight VADA test. The southpaw was stripped of his IBF strap but kept his WBO title and was hit with a backdated one-year ban.

Alimkhanuly (17-0, 12 KOs) moved up to super middleweight in July and was made the WBO's mandatory challenger to Sheeraz.

Sheeraz, 27, won his title via second-round stoppage over Alem Begic on May 23. He then defended that title by majority decision against Simon Zachenhuber on July 25.

As for Alimkhanuly, he hasn’t fought since scoring a fifth-round stoppage over Anauel Ngamissengue in April 2025.