Janibek Alimkhanuly will make a defense of his IBF middleweight title against #3 Andrei Mikhailovich contender this Friday, October 4th, in a Top Rank-promoted event at The Star in Sydney, Australia.
The unbeaten Janibek (15-0, 10 KOs) will be fighting on Mikhailovich’s turf in Australia and won’t be receiving much applause from the Aussie fans for his work. That makes it important that the Kazakhstan-born Janibek make the rounds one-sided and ideally score a knockout.
“Everyone knows and understands that he is easy work for me. I will knock him out very quickly,” said Janibek about Mikhailovich.
Top Rank wants to turn Janibek into a star, but they have a lot of work to do before that happens. What he’s missing are fights against these fighters: Carlos Adames, Erislandy Lara, Hamzah Sheeraz, and Chris Eubank Jr.
If Janibek were to defeat the rising star Sheeraz, it would help. However, the chance of Top Rank convincing the promoters for Sheeraz to match him against a dangerous puncher like Janibek is slim. They’re not going to do it because he’s too good, and Sheeraz has already shown a problem with his ability to take a hard punch.
The middleweight division is empty of talented fighters now. Janibek is stuck fighting no-name guys to increase his start power, and that’s not the ideal way to rise to the top.
Janibek vs. Mikhailovich event will be shown live on ESPN+ this Friday, October 4th. The start time is as follows: 5:00 a.m. ET / 10:00 a.m. The UK.
There hasn’t been much attention given to the fight between the 31-year-old Alimkhanuly (15-0, 10 KOs) and challenger Mikhailovich (21-0, 13 KOs). Perhaps a big reason for that is they’re not well known in the U.S.
Although the 2016 Olympian Janibek is viewed by many as the #1 fighter in the middleweight division, he hasn’t beaten any notable fighters to gain the popularity that he needs to be noticed in the States and worldwide.
Mikhailovich was born in Russia and lives and fights in Australia. His best wins have come against Les Sherrington, Ernesto España, and Edisson Saltarin.
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