On paper, Janibek Alimkhanuly has to be considered the best middleweight in the world.
I stress “on paper”, because it’s been a while since he’s made the nature of statement that earns a fighter that sort of title – which is partly due to a year passing since he last fought, because earlier in 2024 he failed to make weight.
It was in July when he was withdrawn from a fight scheduled with Andrei Mikhailovich, for the IBF and WBO 160lbs titles, in Las Vegas, because according to his manager Egis Klimas: “While the scans showed no kidney damage, he was severely dehydrated and in no condition to fight.”
Alimkhanuly-Mikhailovich is on course to instead happen on Friday, and in Sydney, Australia. There was a time Alimkhanuly looked excellent, but that struggle to make weight has to be a concern, and makes me wonder if the time’s approaching when we’ll see him campaigning at 168lbs instead – not least because he’s from Kazakhstan, and Eastern European fighters are typically among the most disciplined of all.
I commentated on a lot of his early fights on the undercards of Top Rank promotions. He methodically took opponents apart – even good journeymen, at that early stage. He was matched with opponents who were supposed to test him, but he’d tactfully disarm them, dismantle them, and break them down. He also recorded some good knockouts, but it was the way he took opponents apart, with a high boxing IQ, that most impressed.
He’s also a southpaw, with a lengthy 71.5ins reach, and awkward. He looked excellent.
Even today, I’d make him the favourite against any other active middleweight. But not in the way I once would have. And if the time comes when we do see him at 168lbs, I’m also not convinced he has the frame to succeed there.
Where he was once on course to be the world’s leading middleweight, at super middleweight he’d be beneath the elite. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez remains the number one; there’s also physical fighters like Jaime Munguia, Christian Mbilli and Edgar Berlanga. If they didn’t want to be in a boxing match with Alimkhanuly they could force their size on him, and he doesn’t have enough power to keep them off.
The Australian market strikes me as increasingly important to some of the world’s leading promoters, based on the way they appear to be attempting to stage a fight there or to sign a leading Australian fighter – which will be partly because of the untapped fan base that exists there. Mikhailovich might be from nearby New Zealand but Friday’s fight, which was announced at relatively late notice, doesn’t seem likely to make Alimkhanuly a crossover star, so it’s hard to define what it does for him from a business perspective.
In 2024 the middleweight division, which has for so long been one of the most celebrated of all, is unusually weak, contributing to Alimkhanuly continuing to be considered the number one. It’s when a weight division has more than one superstar that a unification fight is tough to make; in 2024 there are none – Hamzah Sheeraz seems the likeliest to change that – which should make the most appealing fights easier for all concerned.
Also at 160lbs I respect Carlos Adames, and his physicality, but it’s Sheeraz who’s really caught my eye. Sheeraz not only has the physical gifts of his frame, length, strength, and power – as he showed when he stopped Tyler Denny in two rounds on the undercard of Daniel Dubois-Anthony Joshua, he’s continuing to improve. He looked excellent in June when he defeated Austin “Ammo” Williams – and Williams is another fighter I liked the look of.
I’d be interested in Sheeraz fighting any of his divisional rivals, and based on his talent, the only reason he might lose at this stage is a lack of experience at the highest level – and even that might not be enough to hold him back. If he proves to have the mettle to complement his technique and athleticism, the time will come when he’ll beat them all.
Sheeraz’s fellow Briton Chris Eubank Jnr has crossover appeal in the UK, but a small profile in the US. It’s also difficult to truly consider him a leading middleweight, because even if it’s his natural weight division he seems most interested in fighting Conor Benn at a catchweight beneath 160lbs, or Canelo at 168lbs for the biggest paydays he can earn.
He sells a fight terrifically, and he also has talent. On October 12 he fights Kamil Szeremeta – who I’ve seen in the flesh against Gennady Golovkin – and I expect him to win convincingly, because he’s far too dynamic, skilled and strong for such a one-dimensional opponent who’s so easy to hit.
It concerns me that Alimkhanuly’s fighting in Australia because of his previous struggles to make 160lbs – travelling that far brings a lot of other factors into play. We’ve also seen strange things happen in fights in Australia before – including, relatively recently, Manny Pacquiao, one of the sport’s biggest ever figures, undeservedly losing via decision to Jeff Horn.
But if Alimkhanuly can make weight safely, he retains the potential to remind everyone why not so long ago he was so highly thought of. If he fights to the best of his abilities, he’s capable of dominating the undefeated Mikhailovich. Friday’s fight will tell us which weight division he belongs in – but it’s the middleweight division he ideally needs to be in, and which also needs him.
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