According to Top Rank President Todd DuBoef, who promotes WBO middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly, the dangerous puncher will have to make a name for himself by wiping out the competition at 160 in the same manner as his countryman Gennadiy Golovkin.
On Saturday night, Janibek will take a step in that direction by facing IBF world champion Vincenzo Gualtieri in a unification bout at the Fort Bend Community Center in Rosenberg, Texas.
Janibek and Golovkin are both from Kazakhstan – and their aggressive styles have created comparisons.
During much of his middleweight run, Golovkin was avoided by the competition and was forced to fight anyone and everyone at the weight. He came within touching distance of unifying the entire division, when he held the WBC, IBF, IBO, WBA world titles in 2017.
Against Gualtieri, Janibek will look to make a statement in the overall goal of becoming undisputed.
“I think he’s going to have to do it the Golovkin way – the Triple G way,” said DuBoef to Sky Sports. “He’s in a division which has a lot of non-high profile fighters – the high profile guys in the division have gone up in weight, so we don’t have a real robust division. That’s why he’s going in for a unification.
“I think people make the connection with Triple G because of where he’s from. But I think the thing that you look at is that there’s a high skill level there. You can see the IQ, you can see the natural ability.
“When Triple G came in, the first time I saw him, he fought in the semi-final for us in New York, and he had the speed, the power and that presence. So, I think this is going to be an interesting moment from him [Alimkhanuly] – he’s going to have to get the stars that we all think he has, bite down and just fight everybody in front of him.
“Being active, staying out there – out of sight, out of mind – if you stay active, go out there, work on your traits and take on everybody in front of you, eventually, everybody gets that buzz.”