Janibek Alimkhanuly, IBF/WBO middleweight Champion, has pulled out of his title defense against Andrei Mikhailovich, which had been scheduled for Saturday, due to dehydration.
Muratalla-Farmer Elevated to Main Event
The card will still go ahead, but the co-feature fight between unbeaten lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla (20-0, 16 KOs) and Tevin Farmer (33-5-1, 8 KOs) will move to the headliner position in a ten-round clash. That’s an excellent fight, worthy of the headliner position.
Top Rank reports that the 31-year-old Janibek (15-0, 10 KOs) fainted while taking off weight for Friday’s weigh-in and was taken to the hospital. Subsequently, Janibek’s title defense against the unbeaten Mikhailovich (21-0, 13 KOs) is now off.
The two had been scheduled to meet in the main event on ESPN+ at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.
Janibek’s Hospitalization
“Janibek was cutting the final pounds last night when he fainted,” said Egis Klimas, Janibek’s manager. “We immediately took him to Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center, where he was put on an IV. While the scans showed no kidney, he was severely dehydrated and in no condition to fight.”
At Thursday’s final press conference, Janibek had looked considerably larger than Mikhailovich while the two were on stage posing for the face-off, suggesting that he would have to do a lot of hard work to take off the water weight in the short period he had before Friday’s weigh-in.
This could be a sign that Janibek needs to move up to 168 because he’s getting older, and staying in the 160-lb division might be risky. If Janibek moves up to 168, he could become Canelo Alvarez’s mandatory with the IBF or WBO to get a quick title shot. There’s a lot of money for Janibek to make fighting Canelo, and likely a lot more than he would make by staying at 160 in a weight he’s struggling to make.
Previous Warning Signs
Janibek gassed out in his fight against Denzel Bentley in November 2022, and it’s unclear if this was a sign of the effort that he had to take cutting down to the 160-lb division.
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