Gualtieri Falls Short, Gets System Reset by Janibek!

Janibek Alimkhanuly has the middleweight division in the palms of his hands. Earlier this year I discussed how splintered the 160 lb division was, with belts split across promotions due to Gennadiy Golovkin holding on for as long as he could, Erislandy Lara being the secondary WBA Champion, and Jermall Charlo remaining inactive while still carrying the WBC Championship. Since then, GGG has vacated all of his belts, giving way to a new generation of middleweights across the world. It was a somber moment for boxing fans around the world, but in Kazakhstan, there were cheers of excitement and the rumblings of a rising star. The WBO Champion, Janibek, took it upon himself to bridge the gap between other champions as well as contenders by showing no fear. People often use political disputes in boxing to justify ducking an opponent, such as Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder. Janibek is nowhere close to dabbling in this practice. In fact, he has actively called out competition at 160 lbs and 154 to test him, Chris Eubank Jr. being the most recent. To Janibek, Vincenzo Gualtieri was another champion who would fall to his Kazakh style.

This became very clear in the 2nd round, where Janibek began to progressively turn up the offensive heat. Instead of the two men being patient with one another and having several feel-out rounds, Janibek was the one to push the action forward and kept Gualtieri on his toes. The jab was a key punch in the first three rounds, but as time passed, Janibek began to use his rear hand as his distance manager. This isn't uncommon for southpaws, people such as Errol Spence and Shakur Stevenson have used this skill to land crushing body shots with the lead hand or to keep the opponent's hands busy. It's complicatedbackward to gauge what comes next when the rear hand is extended, rather than the typical lead hand measuring or flicking that would be followed by a shot from the rear hand. It's a tricky situation to be in no matter where in the ring you are, and Janibek picked up on this when he realized that Gualtieri would continue moving backward into the ropes and corner. After realizing his opponent would be boxing on the back foot for the rest of the evening, Janibek took it upon himself to fire uppercuts from both hands. On the first rear uppercut Janibek threw, Gualtieri stumbled backward. His knees buckled and he brought his hands back up to high guard, but Janibek's high ring IQ enabled him to reach around the guard with hooks and planted more jabs to keep Gualtieri off balance. The same situation came to pass in rounds 5 and 6, which caused a confusing moment between the referee and the two men in the ring. The referee stepped in between Janibek and Gualtieri, intent on stopping the fight. Instead, he gave a motion as if he was breaking the clinch and let the action resume. Gualtieri had a short period of time to recover, but this didn't do much to help his case. Janibek rushed forward and finished him with ease.

To Kazakhstani natives and the diaspora around the world, Janibek represents the best the country has to offer as far as athletic ability and sportsmanship is concerned. He is a good soul, dedicated wholly to his people and his craft. There have been several interviews in which Janibek shows respect to his predecessor GGG and the massive paradigm shift he caused in boxing surrounding Eastern Europe. In GGG's time, especially during his early career, many promoters in America were fearful of taking on fighters from Eastern Europe. This was done for plenty of reasons, initially dismissing fighters from the "Eastern Bloc" because of politics, then because their style was not "television-friendly." The public wanted to see knockouts on every card, not boxers using supreme footwork and reflexes to dart in and out of striking range. The people paid to see haymakers, not 1-2s from the outside all night. Even writing that comment feels comedic. Looking back at this, it doesn't seem very intelligent because this same style has become very popular in the last 10 years. While the Klitschko brothers did enjoy a large degree of success internationally, a majority of their fights were promoted and took place in Germany, which shows just how far American promoters and television networks went to avoid making big fights with them. GGG changed the way Americans saw fighters from Eastern Europe. His aggression and willingness to continue pressing forward despite his opponents fighting with all their heart was inspiring and led to him becoming the third boxer with a Jordan Brand deal. This is a very short list of names, with Roy Jones Jr. being the first, and Andre Ward following in the ranks alongside GGG. Janibek looks to capitalize off of the new wave of fighters from Eastern Europe, with names such as Dimitry Bivol close in tow. Quickly becoming a fan favorite, Janibek Alimkhanuly is a much-needed breath of fresh air in the middleweight division.