Janibek Alimkhanuly’s unified title reign is in danger regardless that one belt is at stake for his subsequent battle.
The Ring’s No. 1-rated middleweight will put his IBF title on the road versus necessary challenger Andrei Mikhailovich. Their bout will happen on Oct. 4 at The Star in Sydney, Australia. ESPN+ will stream the battle within the U.S., whereas it is going to air reside at no cost on Kayo Sports activities in Australia.
Kazakhstan’s Alimkhanuly (15-0, 10 knockouts) additionally holds the WBO title. Nevertheless, the sanctioning physique rendered the bout as a non-title affair. Due to that, New Zealand’s Mikhailovich (21-0, 13 KOs) is barely eligible to win the IBF strap.
Alimkhanuly will retain each titles if he wins. A loss will see Mikhailovich take residence the IBF title, whereas the WBO belt can be vacant.
The timing comes as The Ring has realized a Hamzah Sheeraz-Denzel Bentley battle is being explored for later this yr. Sheeraz (20-0, 13 KOs) should first defeat red-hot contender Tyler Denny (19-2-3, 1 KO) this Saturday at Wembley Stadium in London.
Sheeraz and Denny are rated No. 1 and No. by the WBO. Such a battle is anticipated to return with at the least an interim title at stake.
Alimkhanuly-Mikhailovich was beforehand attributable to happen on July 13 in Las Vegas. The battle was canceled previous to the pre-fight weigh-in when Alimkhanuly was hospitalized attributable to dehydration.
Mikhailovich was left with out a battle because of this. Alimkhanuly was subsequently summoned by the WBO—whose title he additionally holds—to offer medical proof of what led to his dehydration and whether or not he was match to renew his reign.
In the meantime, the IBF intervened and put the battle again on the desk. The matter supplied an epic second for the #PurseBidHeads faction of the game. No Restrict Boxing, Mikhailovich’s promoter, outbid Prime Rank by a single greenback ($351,000 to $350,000) to win the rights to the battle on Sept. 3. Sources knowledgeable The Ring that Prime Rank VP Carl Moretti was nonetheless celebrating Notre Dame’s Aug. 31 win over Texas A&M and forgot to seize the larger purse bid envelope.
A date was secured to permit Alimkhanuly to renew his profession.
“Within the Olympic Video games in Sydney, two Kazakh boxers received gold,” Alimkhanuly theorized. “Bekzat Sattarhanov and Yermakhan Ibraimov impressed many Kazakhs. I grew up with a dream to glorify my nation like them and am very joyful that I’ll field in Sydney. I need to present the world my flag in Sydney as soon as once more, as our Olympic champions did in 2000.
“The battle with Andrei is essential to me as a result of he’s an official contender for my title. He is sort of a cloud for me now. I have to shortly eliminate the cloud to see the solar. Everybody is aware of and understands that he’s simple work for me. I’ll knock him out in a short time!”
Alimkhanuly makes an attempt his fourth general title protection and first of the IBF belt. He knocked out unbeaten Vincent Gualtieri within the sixth-round knockout of their IBF/WBO unification bout final Oct. 14 in Rosenburg, Texas.
Mikhailovich (21-0, 13 KOs) enters his first profession title battle. The timing means he fights for one belt as an alternative of two however is unbothered by that or his opponent’s lack of respect.
“I reside within the current, however I actually haven’t forgotten the previous,”Mikhailovich mentioned. “I respect him because the champion, however I do know that he doesn’t respect me. It’s why I sit up for taking completely all the pieces from him. I can be writing my identify into the historical past books alongside Joseph Parker and Maselino Masoe as a world champion.
“That is my future, it’s my all the pieces. I’ll cease at nothing to verify the world remembers the identify Andrei Mikhailovich.”
