An undefeated world champion has set his sights on a showdown with pound-for-pound star Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez.
Janibek Alimkhanuly, the 31-year-old Kazakh who holds the WBO and IBF middleweight titles, wants to move up in weight to face the Mexican superstar. Alimkhanuly calls himself the "most avoided fighter on the planet" and seems more interested in big challenges than collecting all the belts in his current division.
"I'm not looking for number twos. I'm trying to get number ones, like 'Canelo' and the other guys."
Alimkhanuly has a fight coming up on April 5 in Astana. He'll defend his unified middleweight titles against Anauel Ngamissengue. The Kazakh fighter just picked up the IBF crown from Vincenzo Gualtieri in October 2023.
While he currently fights at 160 pounds, Alimkhanuly says he can move up to 168 to face Canelo. He's confident about managing his weight.
"Since 160 is not a problem I can go up, but I can go back down, I see no problems in terms of the period and in terms of capacities. I have enough capacity"
Canelo has built an incredible career over 66 professional fights. He's won world titles in four weight divisions and became the first undisputed super middleweight champion in the four-belt era. He's beaten top fighters like Gennady Golovkin, Miguel Cotto, and Sergey Kovalev. Canelo has fought from 154 pounds all the way up to 175, though he lost to Dmitry Bivol at that weight in 2022.
Right now, Canelo has other plans. He's set to fight William Scull in May 2025 to try and become undisputed champion again. If that goes well, he might face Terence Crawford in September 2025.
So while Alimkhanuly wants the big fight, he'll have to wait and see how Canelo's schedule plays out. For now, the Kazakh champion will focus on his upcoming title defense and continue to call out the biggest names in boxing.
Alimkhanuly made it clear he's not interested in other top middleweights, showing his determination to land the biggest fights possible.
