Both coming from Kazakhstan and former Olympians for their country and becoming world middleweight champions in the professional ranks are Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin and Janibek ‘Qazaq Style’ Alimkhanuly. Is he following in GGG’s footsteps?
In the amateurs, GGG was 345-5 fighting in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, winning the Silver Medal but losing in the finals to Gaybarbek Gaydarbekov of Russia, 28-18.
Golovkin, born in Karaganda, KAZ, won his first minor title in 2009, stopping John Anderson, 19-3-1, for the WBO Inter-Continental Middleweight title.
In 2010, GGG won the WBO Interim title, knocking out Milton Nunez, 21-1-1, in Panama City, Panama. In his next fight, he won the WBO title, knocking out Nilson Julio Tapia, 14-2-1, in KAZ. He added the WBA title, stopping Kassim Ouma (27-7-1).
Next, GGG added the IBO title, knocking out Luan Simon (23-3-2). In 2013, I covered his win over Philly’s Gabe ‘King’ Rosado (21-5) at Madison Square Garden’s Theater. In 2014, he knocked out Marci Antonio Rubio, 59-6-1, adding the WBC Interim title, improving to 31-0.
In 2015, GGG added the IBF title, stopping David Lemieux, 34-2. In 2017, he defeated Danny ‘Miracle Man’ Jacobs (32-1) by a 12-round decision. Next came his first non-win, ending in a disputed 12-round SD draw with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (49-1-1) in Las Vegas. He chased down ‘Canelo’ in the last seven rounds. Judge Adalaide Byrd scored it 118-110 for Alvarez. She should have been suspended.
Two fights later, GGG, instead of going for a knockout, decided to mix it up with boxing, losing for the first time to ‘Canelo’ by majority decision, dropping to 38-1-1.
GGG won his next four fights over four years, awaiting his rematch with Alvarez in September of 2022 in Las Vegas, losing 115-113 twice and 116-112. Why the four-year delay by Alvarez? By this time, both showed their age, with GGG not fighting again at age 40. His final record was 42-2-1, with 37 stoppages.
In the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Janibek Alimkhanuly defeated Anthony Fowler of the UK and Ilyas Abbadi of Algeria. Then lost to Kamran Shakhsyvarly 2-1 of Azerbaijan 2-1. He was 48-9 in the amateurs. In 2015 in the World Series of Boxing he won both fights defeating Jeffrey Flaz of Puerto Rico by TKO in 1 and Christian Zarate of Argentina 3-0.
Born in Zhilandy, Kazakhstan, he lives in Oxnard, California. In 2019, he won his first minor titles, defeating Cristian Olivas, 14-4, for the vacant WBC Continental Americas and WBO Global middleweight titles. In May 2022, he won the WBO Interim World title, knocking out Danny Dignum (14-0-1) in two rounds in Las Vegas. Next, in 2023, he won the WBO title, knocking out Steven Butler (32-3-1) and stopping IBF champion Vincenzo Gualtieri (21-0-1).
In 2024 in his last fight he stopped Andrei Mikhailovich (21-0), in Sydney, Australia, defending his IBF title improving to 16-0 with 11 stoppages.
As he follows GGG, having won two world titles in the middleweight division, he should be looking to unify the title against WBA champion Cuban Erislandy Lara 31-3-3, with 19 stoppages. The WBC champion is Dominican’s Carlos Adames, 24-1 with 18 stoppages, out of Las Vegas. In 2014, he defeated Terrell Gausha, 24-3-1, in his most recent bout.
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