Janibek Alimkhanuly is publicly tossing his name into the mix for a potential fight with Canelo Alvarez, which would see the Kazakh middleweight titleholder moving up in weight to face the super middleweight king.
“Everyone knows that I want to fight Canelo, but he doesn’t (want to) fight me, and everyone knows it,” Janibek said on social media.
The 31-year-old Janibek (16-0, 11 KO) just fought on Oct. 4 in Australia, retaining his pair of 160 lb belts with a dominant TKO-9 win over Andrei Mikhailovich. That fight had been postponed from an original summer date, after Janibek had issues attempting to make weight.
The idea of Alimkhanuly moving up had been in conversation, but he did make weight capably for that fight three weeks ago.
The middleweight division is barren as far as major money options, and like anyone near 168 lbs, sure, Janibek would love to get a chance to face Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KO), who last fought on Sept. 14 in a wide decision win over Edgar Berlanga. But Janibek is himself not much of a money or “name brand” option
Canelo, 34, is expected to return on Saturday, May 3 if he sticks to his normal schedule. The super middleweight ranks are also not exactly bursting with money options, and one thing could help Janibek’s cause is the potential narrative that he would be fighting in some way to avenge countryman Gennadiy Golovkin, who went 0-2-1 in three fights with Canelo, with two of the results heavily disputed.