10-02-2024, 10:23 AM
Friday, Oct. 4: Janibek Alimkhanuly-Andrei Mikhailovich (ESPN+)
The broadcast begins at 5 a.m. ET (10 a.m. BST).
The early start time is because Alimkhanuly-Mikhailovich is headlining at The Star in Sydney, Australia. Their fight was originally supposed to take place in July in the United States but was postponed when Alimkhanuly fainted while trying to make weight.
Alimkhanuly, a 2016 Olympian, is a unified middleweight titleholder in a division that is lacking in depth and star power. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez long ago departed. Gennadiy Golovkin is essentially retired. Jermall Charlo’s personal struggles have led to significant inactivity; he was finally stripped in May of the WBC belt, which he had last defended in 2021.
In that vacuum, Alimkhanuly was upgraded from interim to regular WBO titleholder in 2022 and then added the IBF belt in his past appearance – a unification win over Vincenzo Gualtieri nearly a year ago. The 31-year-old is originally from Kazakhstan, and now fights out of Oxnard, California. His record is 15-0 (10 KOs).
Only the IBF belt will be on the line. The WBO didn’t sanction Friday’s bout and will make its title vacant if Alimkhanuly loses.
Mikhailovich is a 26-year-old from Auckland, New Zealand, who is 21-0 (13 KOs). He’s coming off of a fifth-round TKO of the previously unbeaten Edisson Saltarin in April 2023 – a win that is less meaningful given Saltarin has since recorded three more defeats – and a 84-second TKO of Les Sherrington, a 39-17 foe, 12 months later.
The winner will hopefully move on to unification bouts against the likes of Carlos Adames (WBC) or Erislandy Lara (WBA), or defenses against rising contenders such as Hamzah Sheeraz.
The broadcast begins at 5 a.m. ET (10 a.m. BST).
The early start time is because Alimkhanuly-Mikhailovich is headlining at The Star in Sydney, Australia. Their fight was originally supposed to take place in July in the United States but was postponed when Alimkhanuly fainted while trying to make weight.
Alimkhanuly, a 2016 Olympian, is a unified middleweight titleholder in a division that is lacking in depth and star power. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez long ago departed. Gennadiy Golovkin is essentially retired. Jermall Charlo’s personal struggles have led to significant inactivity; he was finally stripped in May of the WBC belt, which he had last defended in 2021.
In that vacuum, Alimkhanuly was upgraded from interim to regular WBO titleholder in 2022 and then added the IBF belt in his past appearance – a unification win over Vincenzo Gualtieri nearly a year ago. The 31-year-old is originally from Kazakhstan, and now fights out of Oxnard, California. His record is 15-0 (10 KOs).
Only the IBF belt will be on the line. The WBO didn’t sanction Friday’s bout and will make its title vacant if Alimkhanuly loses.
Mikhailovich is a 26-year-old from Auckland, New Zealand, who is 21-0 (13 KOs). He’s coming off of a fifth-round TKO of the previously unbeaten Edisson Saltarin in April 2023 – a win that is less meaningful given Saltarin has since recorded three more defeats – and a 84-second TKO of Les Sherrington, a 39-17 foe, 12 months later.
The winner will hopefully move on to unification bouts against the likes of Carlos Adames (WBC) or Erislandy Lara (WBA), or defenses against rising contenders such as Hamzah Sheeraz.