ASTANA – Kazakh boxer and 2013 world amateur boxing champion Zhanibek Alimkhanuly has signed up with well-known manager Egis Klimas and will fight professionally in the same division as world champion Kazakh middleweight Gennady Golovkin. He hopes to fight a championship bout in approximately two years.
Zhanibek Alimkhanuly. Photo credit: kfb.kz
Alimkhanuly has earned a well-deserved reputation in amateur boxing, quickly rising to the top of the middleweight division in 2013. The fast puncher with power shots, Alimkhanuly turned pro after the Olympics in Rio-de-Janeiro. In his first professional fight he knocked-out Columbian Milton Nunez in the first round. In his second bout, he beat Brazilian Gilberto Pereira dos Santos by decision.
Before the official end of his amateur career in April, Alimkhanuly fought amateur and professional boxing. After signing with Klimas, Alimkhanuly will concentrate on his professional career and his next fight will be in the middleweight division where Golovkin (GGG) is the champion in the WBC, WBA, IBO and IBF divisions. In the meantime, Alimkhanuly will travel to the United States and sign with a new promoter.
According to Ring Magazine, Klimas was named the best boxing manager of 2017. His clientele includes Ukrainian boxers WBA lightweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko and Oleksandr Usyk and Russian Sergey Kovalev.
Earlier this year, another prominent Kazakh pro boxer, Kanat Islam, signed with Klimas. The Lithuanian-American manager already works with four Kazakh boxers Madiyar Ashkeev, Meirim Nursultanov, Askhat Ualikhanov and Sagadat Rakhmankulov.
Klimas welcomed Alimkhanuly by posting a picture of the boxer on his Instagram account with a caption that reads “Another greatest one. Welcome to family.”
The middleweight category that Alimkhanuly chose is full of aggressive and strong athletes. The division’s top boxers Golovkin and Saul Alvarez have proposed a rematch for fall 2018. British Billy Joe Saunders, Americans Daniel Jacobs and Jermall Charlo are among the top contenders for the championship belts.
Currently, more than 50 Kazakh boxers are active on the professional boxing scene. Alimkhanuly, together with the Olympic champion Daniyar Yeleussinov, now joins well-established boxers Kanat Islam, Ali Akhmedov, Ruslan Madiyev and world famous GGG.
