Promoter Eddie Hearn is confident that Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams will score an upset knockout victory over Queensberry captain Hamzah Sheeraz (19-0, 15 KOs) on Saturday night in their middleweight fight on the ‘5 vs. 5’ event, live on DAZN PPV in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The cost of the event is $69.99 on PPV.
Hearn notes that Queensberry believes in Sheeraz so much that they’ve already got his next fight lined up for Wembley, but he feels that the underdog Ammo Williams (16-0, 11 KOs) is going to tear up the script tomorrow night.
Sheeraz, 6’3″, towered over Williams during today’s weigh-in, looking like a super middleweight next to a middleweight. It’s hard to believe Sheeraz can make 160, but he’s he’s slender and still young at 25. Sheeraz’s future is going to be at super middleweight, but for his sake, he needs to move up soon if he wants to get a chance to fight Canelo Alvarez before he retires.
Hearn Predicts a Late Knockout
“I think everyone is underestimating Ammo Williams. He is well out there, but he a tough, tough man with tremendous reflexes. He can really punch, and he’s unpredictable as well,” said promoter Eddie Hearn to Queensberry about Austin ‘Ammo’ Willams, who has a tough fight ahead of him on Saturday night against Hamzah Sheeraz.
Ammo Williams has got the power to win this fight, but he’s going to have to avoid getting hit by one of Sheerez’s power shots early in the contest when he’s his most dangerous.
He’s one of those fighters who is lethal early but loses strength as the rounds go by. No one knows how good Sheeraz is because his opposition has been at the British domestic level his entire career. Williams praises Sheeraz’s management for maneuvering him so skillfully and keeping him away from threats, but tomorrow night, he can no longer be protected.
“What about Ammo Williams vs. Hamzah Sheeraz. Queensberry is so hot on this kid, Hamzah Sheeraz, that they’ve already booked his next fight at Wembley,” said Hearn. “Ammo Williams is going to tear up the script and knock him out late in the fight.
“I really believe tomorrow night that everything he’s been through has led him to this moment, and maybe I’m a Cinderella story believer, but this ain’t just a kid without ability. This is a tremendous fighter,” said Hearn to Charlie Parson’s YouTube channel, talking about Ammo Williams.
If Ammo Williams defeats Queensberry captain Sheeraz, it would be a big deal, but it wouldn’t be the first time that we’ve seen a fighter who has been protected and heavily hyped brought down to earth.
It would be a bitter pill for Queensberry to swallow seeing their team captain beaten, but Hearn’s captain has a good shot of getting beaten as well tomorrow night, with Deontay Wilder.
Sheeraz should have been tested long before this because he’s been in the game for too long to get his first true top-tier opponent finally, but this is how promoters in this era bring fighters along. They match them weakly to make them long better than they actually are, and then put them in cash-out fights that they’re not prepared for.
“This is a great athlete; this is a big puncher. He’s a very spiritual guy, Ammo, and I just got this feeling inside myself that he’s going to do it tomorrow night, and I’m very proud of him,” said Hearn.
“He pulled me aside and said, ‘I just want to thank you, and I’m going to win for you on Saturday night,’ and it will be out. There will be a documentary where you will see it,” said Hearn about what Ammo Williams said to him after the final press conference this week.