WBO president Gustavo Olivieri announced on social media that Sheeraz voluntarily relinquished the belt. Sheeraz (24-0-1, 19 KOs) was ordered to face former unified middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly next, but the unbeaten Brit determined that there wasn’t enough money in that fight to move forward with it.

Queensberry Promotions won a purse bid for a potential fight between Sheeraz, The Ring’s No. 9-ranked super middleweight, and Alimkhanuly (17-0, 12 KOs) on Wednesday. With the winning bid being $1,001,809, Sheeraz was set to make $751,356.75, while Alimkhanuly would’ve received $250,452.25.

During an appearance on the “Mr. Verzace Podcast” this week with Ring CEO Rick Reeno, Sheeraz noted he’d have a decision to make if the offer wasn’t what he sought to face Alimkhanuly.

“I believe it’s going to come to a point where the money is gonna be considerably low for the biggest fight of my career,” Sheeraz said. “To me, it doesn’t really make sense. Especially being a champion as well. It could be a good offer. I’m praying it is and then it’s simple, the fight goes ahead. But I have a funny feeling that it won’t be. We’ll see what happens.”

Kazakhstan’s Alimkhanuly was named Sheeraz’s mandatory challenger in August after he decided to vacate his WBO middleweight title to move up to 168 pounds.

He tested positive for meldonium, a banned substance, which forced his removal during fight week from his title unification bout against WBA 160-pound champion Erislandy Lara on December 6 in San Antonio. Alimkhanuly was later stripped of his IBF title.

The WBO suspended Alimkhanuly for one year and allowed him to keep his title. Upon deciding to move up to the super middleweight division, the Puerto Rico-based sanctioning body lifted his suspension.

England’s Sheeraz, 27, was displeased with the WBO’s ruling and called it “a joke” during an appearance on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” Sheeraz became the WBO super middleweight champion when he destroyed a vastly overmatched Alem Begic (29-1-1, 23 KOs) by second-round knockout May 23 at Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.

Sheeraz defended that WBO belt once, but he wasn’t impressive in beating another German underdog, Simon Zachenhuber, by majority decision July 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He had surgery on his right hand following his victory over Zachenhuber (29-2, 18 KOs).