Hamzah Sheeraz has announced that he has joined up with trainer Andy Lee, ending a five-year run with Los Angeles-based Ricky Funez.<\/p>\n
The Ilford man is on the comeback trail after a disappointing split draw<\/a> with Carlos Adames in what was his first attempt at a middleweight world title on February 22 at The Venue Riyadh Season. But that is not the only switch as he has also moved to Dubai and changed his training set-up too.<\/p>\n During an interview with Boxing King Media, Sheeraz said: \u201cI can officially announce that my new coach now is Andy Lee. I\u2019ve decided to go with Andy Lee in Dublin, Ireland. My next camp will be out there.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason being is I\u2019ve always been studying him. I used to watch him a lot when he was a fighter but never did I think I would train with him until I started seeing how he works in the corner and started seeing him around the Fury team and how he is, how he portrays himself.<\/p>\n \u201cNot until I met him and sat down with him, I liked what I saw. I went to watch a training session with him and Ben Whittaker to see how he was working with Andy. It was great, man.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s old school training, back to basics, learning how to use what you have to the best of your advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n The 25-year-old has been working with Funez since 2022 and the pair have enjoyed a magnificent rise through the middleweight ranks together. <\/p>\n Sheeraz was on a seven-fight knockout streak with Funez until they encountered Adames, the WBC champion, when he laboured to a draw with a broken hand.<\/p>\n While based in Ilford, Sheeraz would travel to Los Angeles for his fight camp and stay in various Air B&Bs in the area while he was training. Now, he will live in Dubai and head to Dublin for training camp.<\/p>\n Sheeraz said: \u201cQuite a dramatic move but I went to see the set-up and it\u2019s perfect for what I need.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople might say I\u2019m using it as an excuse to change but as a fighter I need a change. I need a fresh start.<\/p>\n It was all on good terms. He\u2019s done a lot for me, took me under his wing when I went to Los Angeles. I\u2019m sure he will train a world champion in the future for sure. <\/p>\n \u201cAt the start of Ramadan I moved out to Dubai and now I\u2019m officially a Dubai citizen. Alhamdullilah, these are the things you work for in life. This is the next step in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Former WBO middleweight champion Lee, 40, a protege of Kronk legend Emanuel Steward, has emerged as one of the best and most in-demand coaches in boxing from his Dublin training base.<\/p>\n Sheeraz joins a stable already boasting the likes of former world heavyweight champion Joseph Parker, light-heavyweight contender Ben Whittaker and welterweight talent Paddy Donovan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hamzah Sheeraz has announced that he has joined up with trainer Andy Lee, ending a five-year run with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[13526,1935,13525,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-20873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-andy-lee","9":"tag-boxing","10":"tag-hamzah-sheeraz","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114339753907078054","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The 6ft 3in puncher has since confirmed he will be moving up to super-middleweight<\/a> as he plans a fresh assault on the world title picture at a new weight.<\/p>\n