Both from Kazakhstan and former Olympians for their country and becoming middleweight world champions in the professional ranks are Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin and Janibek ‘Qazaq Style’ Alimkhanuly. Are you following in GGG’s footsteps?
In the amateurs, GGG threw 345-5 at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, winning the Silver Medal, but losing in the final 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, defeating Milton Nunez, 21-1-1, in Panama City, Panama. In his next fight, he won the WBO title, defeating Nilson Julio Tapia, 14-2-1, in KAZ. He added the WBA title, stopping Kassim Ouma (27-7-1).
Later, GGG added the IBO title, defeating Luan Simon (23-3-2). In 2013, I covered his win over Philly’s Gabe ‘King’ Rosado (21-5) at the Madison Square Garden Theater. In 2014, he eliminated 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 12-round SD draw with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (49-1-1) in Las Vegas. He chased “Canelo” down 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, falling to 38-1-1.
GGG won his next four fights in four years, awaiting his rematch with Alvarez in September 2022 in Las Vegas, losing 115-113 twice and 116-112. Why the four-year delay from Alvarez? By this time, both were showing their age, with GGG not fighting again at the age of 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 United Kingdom and Ilyas Abbadi of Algeria. Then lost to Kamran Shakhsyvarly 2-1 of Azerbaijan 2-1. He was 48-9 in the amateurs. In the 2015 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, 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 interim WBO world title, knocking out Danny Dignum (14-0-1) in two rounds in Las Vegas. Then, in 2023, he won the WBO title, defeating Steven Butler (32-3-1) and 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 improved to 16-0 with 11 stoppages.
As he follows GGG, having won two world titles in the middleweight division, he must seek to unify the title against the WBA Cuban champion Erislandy Lara 31-3-3, with 19 stoppages. The WBC champion is Dominican Carlos Adames, 24-1 with 18 stops, out of Las Vegas. In 2014, he defeated Terrell Gausha, 24-3-1, in his last fight.
