Janibek Alimkhanuly

Alimkhanuly made his professional debut against Milton Núñez, a former opponent of Alimkhanuly's fellow countryman Gennady Golovkin,[5] on 29 October 2016 in his home city of Almaty, Kazakhstan. He won the bout via first-round technical knockout.[6]

Ahead of his fight with Issah Samir on 21 March 2020, the world was struck with COVID-19. Alimkhanuly's fight was canceled but he said it's not a big deal that his bout was canceled and that there were more pressing concerns. "We just lost the fight date, someone lost the family. It’s not easy. We will fight when everything calms down but nobody will not return them to their family. I wish all patients a quick recovery.”[7]

In his toughest test yet, Alimkhanuly faced former WBA (Regular) champion Rob Brant as the co-featured bout to Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Masayoshi Nakatani on 26 June 2021 in Paradise, Nevada.[8] He knocked Brant down in the sixth round en route to an eighth-round corner retirement victory.[9]

Alimkhanuly faced the former two-time world middleweight champion Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam on 20 November 2021, on the Terence Crawford vs. Shawn Porter undercard.[10] He won the fight by an eight-round technical knockout. Alimkhanuly was ahead on the scorecards at the time of the stoppage (with scores of 70–62, 70–62 and 70–61) and had knocked N'Jikam down in the third round.[11]

On 30 November 2021, the WBO ordered their middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade to make a mandatory title defense against Alimkhanuly.[12] Three months later, on 21 March 2022, the sanctioning body allowed Andrade to move up in weight and face Zach Parker for the interim super middleweight title instead, while allowing him to keep the middleweight championship as well.[13] Andrade later withdrew from the fight, as he suffered a right shoulder injury during training camp.[14] As such, Alimkhanuly faced the undefeated Danny Dignum for the vacant WBO interim middleweight title on 21 May 2022, in the main event of an ESPN broadcast card, which took place at the Resorts World Event Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.[15] He made quick work of his opponent, stopping Dignum with an uppercut near the end of the second round. Alimkhanuly landed 21 of 33 power punches and 34 of 94 overall, while Dignum managed to land only 6 out of 45 total punches.[16]

On 20 July 2022, the WBO once again ordered their Demetrius Andrade to defend his title against Alimkhanuly, giving the pair 30 days to come to terms.[17] Andrade officially vacated his middleweight title on 30 August. Alimkhanuly was promoted to the WBO Champion that same day.[18]

On 22 September 2022, it was revealed that Alimkhanuly would make a voluntary title defense against the #14 ranked WBO middleweight contender Denzel Bentley. The title bout was booked as the headliner of an ESPN+ broadcast card, which took place at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 12, 2022.[19][20] Alimkhanuly retained his title by unanimous decision, with two judges scoring the bout 116–112 in his favor, while the third judge awarded him a wider scorecard of 118–110.[21] He outlanded Bentley 187 to 159 in total punches and 137 to 125 in power punches, landing 35% of all the strikes he threw, compared to Bentley's 25.9%.[22]

On 20 November 2022, the WBO formally ordered Alimkhanuly to make a mandatory title defense against the former junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia.[23] On 2 December, it was revealed that Munguia's team had declined to proceed with the mandatory title fight.[24] On 22 February 2023, Alimkhanuly was ordered to make a mandatory title defense against the former WBO light-middleweight champion Liam Smith.[25] As Smith was contractually obligated to face Chris Eubank Jr in an immediate rematch, Alimkhanuly instead made his second title defense against the sixth-ranked WBO middleweight contender Steven Butler on 13 May 2023.[26] He won the fight by a second-round knockout.[27]

Alimkhanuly faced the IBF middleweight titleholder Vincenzo Gualtieri in a championship unification bout on October 14, 2023, at the Fort Bend County Epicenter in Rosenberg, Texas.[28][29] Prior to the fight, Alimkhanuly began training with Brian Viloria, having previously trained under Buddy McGirt.[30] In the fifth round, he dazed Gualtieri with a hard left uppercut that he recovered from; after dazing Gualtieri again with a left uppercut in the sixth round, the referee stopped the fight and awarded Alimkhanuly the victory by TKO. With this victory, he became the second boxer from Kazakhstan to earn the unified middleweight championship.[31]