The middleweight division hasn’t seen any significant developments over the past couple of years but a potential battle between WBO and IBF champion Janibek Alimkhanuly and WBC champion Carlos Adames might change the course of the division entirely. With Alimkhanuly the only fighter out of the three champions in the division to have unified, there are only two fights left to determine an undisputed champion. However, the prospect of Alimkhanuly seems unlikely at this point after he accused Adames of purposefully foiling negotiations to avoid facing him.
Dominican WBC champion Carlos Adames (24-1, 18 KO’s) wrought the wrong kind of attention this past weekend after he put out a post on social media implying that there was no one in the middleweight (160 lbs) division looking to fight him.
Adames, who referred to himself as the “caballo branco” ― roughly translated as “wild horse” from Spanish to English ― in his social media post likely did not anticipate on the claims of him not being approached by any opponent as Kazakhstani unified [WBO & IBF] 160 lbs champion Janibek Alimkhanuly (15-0, 10 KO’s) soon countered with his own response.
According to Alimkhanuly, Adames had been approached in the recent past, contradicting what the Dominican champion claimed. Financial incentives appears to have played a role in a unification fight between Adames and Alimkhanuly never occurring, with the latter claiming the Dominican fighter had excessively demanded more money than feasible.
The more interesting parts of Alimkhanuly’s statements portray a different view. Alimkhanuly, who is aligned with prominent promotional outfit Top Rank, seems to have already approached Adames for a potential unification fight.
Adames, who is aligned with TGB Promotions through Premier Boxing Champions (PBC), did not deny Alimkhanuly’s claims, at the very least suggesting his team had been approached by the Kazakshtani fighter’s team for a bout.
Regardless of what occurred during these talks, there might have been a more sinister reason for Adames allegedly declining a fight with Alimkhanuly; PBC. The PBC’s alleged owner, Al Haymon, has been implicated already in interfering with fighters through his advisory position, and with PBC notorious for preferring “in-house” fights1, there would be an incentive by PBC for Adames to reject a fight with Alimkhanuly. With Alimkhanuly largely considered the #1 middleweight in the world according to The Ring Boxing Magazine and BoxRec, PBC would consider Adames fighting the Kazakhstani champion risky.
There is, of course, the possibility that Carlos Adames and his team have surmised themselves his chance of winning against Janibek Alimkhanuly to be slim, which could have led to the excessive demands as Alimkhanuly claimed.
Either way, the recent and brief social media spat between the two fighters could draw enough attention for more prevalent interest to be ignited in seeing the fight occur. Particularly, General Entertainment Authority chairman, Turki Alalshikh, has both the influence and means to make a fight between the two occur and might be able to entice Adames with a substantial offer that would placate his alleged excessive demands for a unification fight.
There is also the prospect of Adames rejecting the fight with Alimkhanuly in anticipation of his own unification fight with Cuban-American WBA 160 lbs champion Erislandy Lara (31-3-3, 19 KO’s). With Lara having recently defended his WBA title, the fact both fighters are aligned with PBC/TGB Promotions and each possess a [world] title in the middleweight division makes for the likely advent of a unification fight between the two Latino fighters.
- Fights between two fighters tied or aligned to the same promotion. ↩︎
