Janibek Alimkhanuly might not be a household name, yet, but that is the goal. The fearsome middleweight won the vacant WBO middleweight world title in his twelfth professional fight after Demetrius Andrade, before him, vacated the belt to seek opportunities at the super middleweight division. Alimkhanuly now aims to make his second world title defense against Steven Butler, seemingly the only man at the moment willing to fight him according to Alimkhanuly’s team and his promoter, Top Rank.
Part of the problem is the middleweight division is paper thin. Liam Smith might be the marquee name in the division after knocking out Chris Eubank Jr., Esquiva Falcao will face Vincenzo Gualtieri, and Michael Zerafa is one of the top names in the division. This is not the days of old with Sergio Martinez, Gennadiy Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs, and Canelo Alvarez. So, Alimkhanuly is now looking at how he can unify the belts to garner the respect he feels he deserves.
“I’m very excited. This is my second defense. I prepared very well for this fight. I don’t want to just defend my title. I want to unify titles. I think it’s going to be a great fight this Saturday night,” said Alimkhanuly at the press conference on Thursday in Manteca, California. “I got a new conditioning coach because I understand that it will help me grow. If you keep doing the same things, then you will stay in the same place. I wanted to grow. I wanted to unify. I wanted to fight Jermall Charlo. I wanted to fight Erislandy Lara. In order to do that, I knew that I had to make changes.”
Alimkhanuly will fight one week before his managerial and promotional stablemate, Vasiliy Lomachenko takes on Devin Haney for the undisputed world title, on May 20th on ESPN+ pay-per-view. A theme amongst the top fighters with Klimas is one thing - legacy. Whether it is undisputed, a rush to a world title, or historical relevance. Klimas seems to have a handful of fighters seeking to build legacy as well as wealth.
Alimkhanuly, Oleksandr Usyk or Vasiliy Lomachenko, all seem consumed with creating something that can’t be achieved easily by another fighter. That said, it has been hard for Alimkhanuly to find fights.
As for Butler, he has hit all the cues you want of an underdog. Butler has been confident all fight week and had one of the most intimidating face-offs in which he probably looked at Alimkhanuly for all of five seconds or less before leaving the stage. Neither fighter was interviewed after the weigh-in, as Butler set the tone. Alimkhanuly might be a feared middleweight, but Butler certainly does not fear him.
“I’m scared of nobody,” said Butler. “I’ve taken risks my whole life. Janibek is a good boxer. I have nothing bad to say about him. But we worked hard in this training camp. I’ve worked hard my entire life for this fight.”
A lot of excitement is brewing about the potential of Alimkhanuly, but one thing is for sure, he is a very young fighter - and his fight, Saturday, May 13th on ESPN+, in Stockton, California, will set the trajectory for this part of his career moving forward. Alimkhanuly’s outing against Denzel Bentley was far from his best fight, and now to get these opportunities, Alimkhanuly also needs a performance that makes the fans crave to see him back in the ring as well.
“Right now [it isn’t just about fighting] and defending the title, but to unify [the world titles at the middleweight division,” said Klimas. “[Jermall] Charlo, [Esquiva] Falcao against [Vincenzo Gualtieri], [Erislandy] Lara, we’d [seek] a unification with him. We will see what the promoters can bring us.”
The goals are ambitious as when Alimkhanuly looks good, he looks like a legend, now it is the age-old tradition of finding a suitable opponent to raise his profile. Not unlike his fellow countryman, Gennadiy Golovkin a decade ago, Alimkhanuly is having to pursue any-and-all fights in his division. Klimas spoke candidly about how they are no longer going to only look for mandatories opponents from the sanctioning bodies, as too many opponents have turned him down.
“We did [try to go the way of the sanctioning body mandatories], and the mandatory was ordered for him to fight, and everybody turned it down,” said Klimas as Steven Butler is ranked #6 by the WBO in the middleweight rankings. “He was a mandatory for Demetrius Andrade, and [Andrade] jumped out of the weight class, [and] just ran from [Janibek Alimkhanuly].”
Saturday looks to be the start of a run of dominance Alimkhanuly hopes to have over the middleweight division, as he seeks more world titles in the future, but first he has to get by Steven Butler, who is giving off all the signs of a very live dog come, Saturday night.
