Both hailing from Kazakhstan and becoming former Olympians for their country and world middleweight champions in the professional ranks, Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin and Janibek ‘Qazaq Style’ Alimkhanuly. Is he following in GGG’s footsteps?
In the amateurs, GGG went 345-5 at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, and won the silver medal, but lost in the final to Gaybarbek Gaydarbekov of Russia, 28-18.
Born in Karaganda, KAZ, Golovkin won his first minor title in 2009, stopping John Anderson, 19-3-1, for the WBO Inter-Continental Middleweight title.
In 2010, GGG won the WBO interim title, knocking out Milton Nunez 21-1-1 in Panama City, Panama. In his next fight, he won the WBO title, knocking out Nilson Julio Tapia 14-2-1 in KAZ. He added the WBA title, stopping Kassim Ouma (27-7-1).
Next, GGG added the IBO title, knocking out Luan Simon (23-3-2). In 2013, I covered his win over Philly’s Gabe ‘King’ Rosado (21-5) at Madison Square Garden’s theater. In 2014, he knocked out Marci Antonio Rubio 59-6-1, adding the WBC interim title and improving to 31-0.
In 2015, GGG added the IBF title, stopping David Lemieux 34-2. In 2017, he defeated Danny ‘Miracle Man’ Jacobs (32-1) by a 12-round decision. Then came his first non-win, which ended in a contested 12-round SD draw with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (49-1-1) in Las Vegas. He chased down ‘Canelo’ in the last seven rounds. Judge Adalaide Byrd scored it 118-110 for Alvarez. She should have been suspended.
Two fights later, instead of going for a knockout, GGG decided to mix it up with boxing, losing to ‘Canelo’ for the first time by majority decision and dropping to 38-1-1.
GGG won his next four fights over four years in anticipation of his rematch with Alvarez in September 2022 in Las Vegas, losing twice 115-113 and 116-112. Why the four-year delay by Alvarez? By this time, both were showing their age, with GGG not fighting again at the age of 40. His final record was 42-2-1, with 37 shutouts.
In the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Janibek Alimkhanuly defeated Anthony Fowler of the UK and Ilyas Abbadi of Algeria. Then Kamran Shakhsyvarly lost 2-1 to Azerbaijan 2-1. He was 48-9 in the amateurs. In 2015 in the World Series of Boxing, he won both fights, defeating Jeffrey Flaz of Puerto Rico by TKO in 1 and Christian Zarate of Argentina 3-0.
Born in Zhilandy, Kazakhstan, he lives in Oxnard, California. In 2019, he won his first junior titles, defeating Cristian Olivas, 14-4, for the vacant WBC Continental Americas and WBO Global middleweight titles. In May 2022, he won the WBO Interim World Title, knocking out Danny Dignum (14-0-1) in two rounds in Las Vegas. Next, in 2023, he won the WBO title, knocking out Steven Butler (32-3-1) and stopping IBF champion Vincenzo Gualtieri (21-0-1).
In 2024, in his last fight, he stopped Andrei Mikhailovich (21-0), in Sydney, Australia, to defend his IBF title and improved to 16-0 with 11 stoppages.
As he follows GGG, having won two world titles in the middleweight division, he should unify the title against WBA champion Cuban Erislandy Lara, 31-3-3, with 19 stoppages. The WBC champion is Dominican Carlos Adames, 24-1 with 18 stoppages, from Las Vegas. In 2014, he defeated Terrell Gausha, 24-3-1, in his most recent fight.
