Janibek Alimkhanuly will make a defense of his IBF middleweight title against #3 contender Andrei Mikhailovich this Friday, October 4, in an event promoted by Top Rank at The Star in Sydney, Australia.
The unbeaten Janibek (15-0, 10 KOs) will be fighting on Mikhailovich’s home turf in Australia and won’t get much applause from the Australian fans for his work. That makes it important that Kazakhstan-born Janibek makes the round one-sided and ideally scores a knockout.
“Everyone knows and understands that it’s an easy job for me. I took it 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 is missing are the fights against these fighters: Carlos Adames, Erislandy Lara, Hamzah Sheeraz and Chris Eubank Jr.
If Janibek was to defeat the rising star Sheeraz, it would help. However, the chance of Top Rank convincing the promoters for Sheeraz to match 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 right now. Janibek is stuck fighting no-name guys to increase his starting power, and that’s not the ideal way to climb to the top.
The Janibek vs. Mikhailovich event will be shown live on ESPN+ this Friday, October 4. The start time is as follows: 5:00 am ET / 10:00 am UK.
Not much attention was paid to the fight between the 31-year-old Alimkhanuly (15-0, 10 KOs) and the challenger Mikhailovich (21-0, 13 KOs). Perhaps a big reason for that is that they are not well known in the United States
Although the 2016 Olympian Janibek is seen by many as the No. 1 fighter in the middleweight division, he has not beaten any notable fighters to gain the popularity that should be noted in the States and around the world.
Mikhailovich was born in Russia and lives and fights in Australia. His best wins came against Les Sherrington, Ernesto España and Edisson Saltarin.
