Diego Pacheco will not be facing Hamzah Sheeraz next.
The two undefeated young stars of the super middleweight division with identical knockout records seemed to be on a collision course in the first half of 2026 with purse bids called and fans eagerly awaiting an official announcement.
However, Pacheco (25-0, 18 KOs) has withdrawn from facing Sheeraz (22-0-1, 18 KOs) for the vacant WBO super middleweight world championship.
Gustavo Olivieri, current president of the WBO revealed earlier that the scheduled purse bid for today had been cancelled. Though, he did not specify the exact reason why.
Fans began speculating online that a deal must have been struck for them to face off, but nothing official had been released to the public confirming this to be the case.
Sheeraz has now responded to a tweet on Twitter/X stating that Pacheco had in fact pulled out from the purse bid process set to take place today.
The big hitting British Pakistani Sheeraz, is ranked at number 3 with the WBO while Jacob Bank (17-0, 9 KOs) is at number 4 followed by Alem Begic (29-0-1, 23 KOs) at number 5.
Interestingly, Bank faces former IBF super middleweight champion William Scull (23-1, 9 KOs) on January 31st in Denmark and if he is to be victorious he could be ordered to enter negotiations with Sheeraz for a world title bout next.
This follows a few weeks of updates coming from the four main sanctioning bodies on the ever changing landscape of the super middleweight division – in the aftermath of Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) defeating Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (63-3-2, 39 KOs) for the undisputed WBA/WBC/WBO/IBF and RING super middleweight championships back in September 2025.
Christian Mbilli (29-0-1, 24 KOs) has now been elevated to full world champion status with the WBC after Sheeraz withdrew from the process to finalise a bout with Mbilli for the full version of the world title and chose to pursue the WBO instead.
Also, the IBF have officially confirmed talks are underway between their number 1 ranked contender Osleys Iglesias (14-0, 13 KOs) and number 7 ranked contender Pavel Silyagin (16-0-1, 7 KOs) after a number of high profile names turned down the opportunity.
Fighters in the super middleweight division will be on high alert with the constant moving pieces and manoeuvres taking place in the division at the moment.
Opportunities may present themselves for a number of fighters in the coming weeks and months to step up in meaningful bouts placing them within touching distance of world honours.
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