Kazakhstani IBF middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly and Australian challenger Andrei Mikhailovich had been poised to face each other earlier this year in July, but their match was scrapped after Alimkhanuly was hospitalized two days before the fight after suffering from dehydration . Their title bout will now commence once more on October 4th in Mikhailovich’s home country of Australia at The Star in Sydney, with the only exception being the WBO title that will no longer be defended by Alimkhanuly.
Janibek Alimkhanuly (15-0, 10 KO’s) suffered dehydration issues during weight-cutting the day prior to his official weigh-in for his July 13th fight against Andrei Mikhailovich (21-0, 13 KO’s), resulting in their title bout being cancelled. Alimkhanuly was poised to defend both his WBO and IBF middleweight (160 lbs) titles for that bout.
With the two now scheduled for next month, Top Rank’s press release that announced the fight came paired with an interesting new development that has occurred; only the IBF 160 lbs title will be defended by Alimkhanuly come October 4th.
This likely means that the WBO middleweight title will be announced as vacant in the near future. The most likely reason for this is Janibek Alimkhanuly’s failure to provide a medical report to the WBO which they requested on July 15th―two days after the cancelled fight with Mikhailovich, or discrepancies within the report that has spurred the sanctioning body to refuse to sanction the fight and make the title available. As the WBO indicated within their press release, Alimkhanuly had 10 days to provide a valid medical report or risk being stripped of his title.
Given the WBO title will not be made available for the upcoming October 4th fight, Alimkhanuly presumably failed to produce a valid medical report―though it should be noted that the WBO has not given any developing news regarding Alimkhanuly since their July 15th press release, and Alimkhanuly is still listed as the WBO 160 lbs champion as of today [September 19th, 2024].
The next update of the WBO’s rankings may rectify Alimkhanuly’s current position as the WBO champion, with the update expected to be made either this week or the next.
These developments might be more significant than initially suspected if the WBO were to announce the relinquishment of Alimkhanuly’s WBO title this week prior to the September 21st Joshua-Dubois card which will see #1 WBO middleweight contender, Hamzah Sheeraz (20-0, 16 KO’s) face EBU European champion Tyler Denny (19-2-3, 1 KO’s) in the co-main event.
Potentially, the WBO could be made available for the Denny-Sheeraz fight, depending on whether the WBO’s update will occur before the fight and will reflect Denny as a top 15 contender. Those ranked outside the top 15 of the WBO’s rankings would not qualify for a shot at a world title.
What is certain is that Janibek Alimkhanuly is still the IBF world champion and will be defending it against a younger and unbeaten contender―on October 4th―who may have the tools to upset the Kazakhstani fighter.
