After Gennady Golovkin, another Kazakhstani fighter has risen to prominence and dominance in Janibek Alimkhanuly. Alimkhanuly, who is a Middleweight like Golovkin, has now recorded his fourteenth victory over Canadian contender Steven Butler. Their match on May 13th, held at the Stockton Arena in Stockton, California, only went to two rounds after Janibek Alimkhanuly quickly dropped the Canadian thrice before the fight was ruled a knockout (according to California rules) for Alimkhanuly.

WBO Middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly (14-0, 9 KO’s), 30, had previously made his name in the amateur ranks where he almost seemed to eclipse the noteworthy career of fellow Kazakhstani Gennady Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KO’s) himself. Just as Golovkin had made his home country of Kazakhstan proud with his performances in the professional ranks, Alimkhanuly has taken things a step farther by becoming a world champion earlier than his compatriot and now in form to dominate the division for some time to come.

Faced against Canadian Steven Butler (32-4-1, 26 KO’s) while headlining in the venue of Stockton Arena, no one would have faulted Janibek Alimkhanuly if the match had gone on longer. His bout with Denzel Bentley, for example, had gone the distance to twelve rounds in a match that can now safely be considered to have been Alimkhanuly’s toughest match. With Butler rising to a contender position over the past year, few had expected things to go the way they did.

From the onset of their bout, it seemed like Janibek Alimkhanuly had no intention to go the full twelve scheduled rounds of his bout with Steven Butler. Though the first round proved to be rather uneventful, the second round saw Alimkhanuly clearly daze Butler with a left uppercut before the Kazakhstani pounced on Butler with a series of combinations that dropped the Canadian and recorded the first knockdown for Alimkhanly.

At the tail end of second round in the last minute, Alimkhanuly had pressured Butler endlessly to eventually gain the opportunity to hit him clean and drop Butler for the second time of the round. Approximately twenty seconds later, Janibek Alimkhanuly sealed the win with his third knockdown which forced the match to be stopped as California rules count three knockdowns as a straight KO loss. Alimkhanuly subsequently retained his WBO title for the second time in a row, and also maintained his unbeaten winning streak.

Overall, Janibek Alimkhanuly had turned his match into a mismatch with his performance over Butler who was involved in his first world title opportunity, and similar to Gennady Golovkin who had reigned supreme as a Middleweight for over a decade, it is now Alimkhanuly who seems to have heralded himself as the next ‘boogeyman’ of the division, if not boxing.

The co-main event involved Bantamweights Jason Moloney (26-2, 19 KO’s) and Vincent Astrolabio (18-4, 13 KO’s) for the vacant WBO Bantamweight title ― which had been left in the lurch following Naoya Inoue’s (24-0, 21 KO’s) move up to Super Bantamweight. The match proved to be a great spectacle, with both fighters understanding the significance of a world title being on the line which resulted in a high-paced and competitive bout that went the full distance of twelve rounds.

It was Australian Jason Moloney who eventually won by majority decision over Filipino Vincent Astrolabio with the judges’ scores of 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112 pinpointing Moloney as the winner. Moloney has now become the second fighter to become world champion at 118 pounds following Inoue’s departure. The only other champion in the division is currently WBA champion Takuma Inoue (18-1, 4 KO’s) , the younger brother of Naoya Inoue.

With two other champions (WBC and IBF) in the division still to be determined, there is a good possibility that Takuma Inoue (who fought last month) and Moloney might be matched provided they aren’t thrown into mandates. Jason Moloney, in particular, may have some motivation to defeat Takuma Inoue after being gruesomely knocked out by his older brother Naoya Inoue in 2020.

Despite his latest victory, Janibek Alimkhanuly still has plenty of challenge ahead of him with the chance of unifications against WBC champion Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22 KO’s) or WBA champion Erislandy Lara (29-3-3, 17 KO’s), However, the Kazakhstani champion will have to wait sometime as both aforementioned fighters are slated to fight in the next three months.

There is also a slight chance for Alimkhanuly to face Gennady Golovkin who is now firmly positioned as the #1 contender through the WBO’s Middleweight rankings. The two Kazakhstani fighters could potentially be pitted against one other in what would be an unprecedented domestic clash between the (arguably) best of two different generations of Kazakhstani Middleweight fighters in what might very well be considered a ‘passing of the torch’ if Golovkin loses to Alimkhanuly.

Alimkhanuly might also face another Kazakhstani contender in Meiirim Nursultanov (19-0, 11 KO’s) who is ranked as the #4 on the WBO’s 160-pound rankings. Given the #2 and #3 on the rankings, Liam Smith (33-3-1, 20 KO’s) and Jaime Munguia (41-0, 33 KO’s) respectively, are involved in their own fights in the upcoming two/three months, both fighters Nursultanov remains a prospective good opponent to decide who is the next best Kazakhstani in the division.