Janibek Alimkhanuly successfully retained his IBF middleweight title on October 4 against Andrei Mikhailovich. Battling it out in the main event at The Star in Sydney, Australia, the world champion of Kazakhstan put on a dominant performance.
The scheduled for 12 rounds bout didn’t go the full distance. At the end of the second round, the unbeaten 31-year-old southpaw dropped his opponent with a big left hand. The latter tried to rebound and fought back, and the fight went on for another full eight rounds.
Referee Katsuhiko Nakamura stepped in and called it a day at 2 minutes and 45 seconds into the ninth round to save the challenger from further punishment. At the time of a stoppage, the champion was leading with the scores 80-71, 80-71 and 78-73.
With the victory by TKO, Janibek Alimkhanuly improved to 16-0, 11 KOs and retained his IBF 160 lbs title. According to the “Show Cause” letter by World Boxing Association, his WBO belt was not on the line.
Post-fight, Alimkhanuly said he wanted to face other champions next. Cuban Erislandy Lara (31-3-3, 19 KOs) is a WBA titleholder. Carlos Adames (24-1, 18 KOs) of the Dominican Republic is a WBC champion
26-year-old Andrei Mikhailovich of New Zealand dropped to 21-1, 13 KOs and suffered his first career defeat.
In the co-feature on the card, unbeaten Mea Motu (20-0, 8 KOs) of New Zealand stopped Australia’s former title challenger Shannon O’Connell (24-8-1, 12 KOs) in the fourth round of their contest at catchweight. Among other Janibek vs Mikhailovich results, unbeaten Charlie Kazzi (7-0, 3 KOs) of Australia TKO’d Lui Magaiva (4-7, 1 KOs) of Papua New Guinea in the seventh round at lightweight. Also at lightweight, Ahmed Reda (3-0, 3 KOs) of Australia eliminated Joe Kara (5-7-1, 5 KOs) of Papua New Guinea in the second round.