Pound-for-pound lists are about as subjective as it gets. Those who come up with said lists, typically boxing fans and media pundits, sprinkle a little bit of everything in there. Facts, more than anything, aren’t a needed ingredient. Still, even with those lists varying, most of them contain many of the same names.
We all know the usual suspects right? Canelo Alvarez, Terence Crawford, Jermell Charlo, Naoya Inoue, Gervonta Davis, Dmitry Bivol, and a handful of other great fighters have earned their spot. But while those in boxing circles take their sweet time when putting together those lists, one name that you practically never associate with any pound-for-pound rankings is Janibek Alimkhanuly. While it may all be opinion based, the current WBO middleweight champ doesn’t appreciate his absence from the party.
“I don’t like it when my name is not in the pound-for-pound rankings,” said Alimkhanuly on his social media account recently.
To a large extent, Alimkhanuly (14-0, 9 KOs) doesn’t have elite-level dance partners at his disposal in order to change everyone’s mind. For a number of years now, the middleweight division has been stuck in purgatory. Gone are the days of Daniel Jacobs, Gennadiy Golovkin, and Canelo Alvarez running things.
As a result, collecting those precious titles have come a bit easier than normal but it’s also come with a lot less fanfare. Even Jermall Charlo, probably the division’s biggest and most well-known name, is now a part-time fighter.
With no established fighters to prove that he’s one of the best boxers on the planet, Alimkhanuly, ostensibly, has a trick or two up his sleeves. Although he was a bit cryptic, he did reveal that fighting and defeating a certain fighter could and should place him in the pound-for-pound discussions.
“I have to fix this,” Continued Alimkhanuly. “Now you know my one more target!”
On October 14 in Texas, Alimkhanuly will attempt to secure another world title when he faces unbeaten IBF world champion Vincenzo Gualtieri in a title unification showdown on at Fort Bend Epicenter in Rosenberg.