Both Kazakhstan natives and former Olympians for their country who became middleweight world champions in the professional ranks are Gennadiy “GGG” Golovkin and Janibek “Qazaq Style” Alimkhanuly. Is he following in GGG’s footsteps?

As an amateur, GGG was 345-5 at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, winning the silver medal but losing in the final to Russia’s Gaybarbek Gaydarbekov, 28-18.

Golovkin, born in Karaganda, KAZ, won his first minor title in 2009, stopping John Anderson, 19-3-1, for the WBO Inter-Continental Middleweight title.

In 2010, GGG won the WBO Interim title by knocking out Milton Nunez, 21-1-1, in Panama City, Panama. In his next fight, he won the WBO title by knocking out Nilson Julio Tapia, 14-2-1, at KAZ. He added the WBA title by stopping Kassim Ouma (27-7-1).

Then, GGG added the IBO title by eliminating Luan Simon (23-3-2). In 2013, I covered his victory over Philadelphia’s Gabe ‘King’ Rosado (21-5) at Madison Square Garden’s Theater. In 2014, he knocked out Marci Antonio Rubio, 59-6-1, adding the WBC Interim title, improving to 31-0.

In 2015, GGG added the IBF title, stopping David Lemieux, 34-2. In 2017, he defeated Danny “Miracle Man” Jacobs (32-1) by 12-round decision. Then came his first non-win, ending in a contested 12-round draw with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (49-1-1) in Las Vegas. He chased down “Canelo” for the last seven rounds. Judge Adalaide Byrd scored it 118-110 for Alvarez. She should have been suspended.

Two fights later, GGG, instead of going for the knockout, decided to mix it up with boxing, losing for the first time to “Canelo” by majority decision, falling to 38-1-1.

GGG won his next four fights in four years, looking forward to his rematch with Alvarez in September 2022 in Las Vegas, losing 115-113 twice and 116-112. Why Alvarez’s four-year delay? By then, both were showing their age, with GGG no longer fighting at 40 years old. His final record was 42-2-1, with 37 saves.

At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Janibek Alimkhanuly defeated Britain’s Anthony Fowler and Algeria’s Ilyas Abbadi. Then lost to Kamran Shakhsyvarly 2-1 against Azerbaijan 2-1. He was 48-9 among amateurs. In 2015, in the World Series of Boxing, he won both fights defeating Jeffrey Flaz of Puerto Rico by TKO in 1 and Christian Zarate of Argentina 3-0.

Born in Zhilandy, Kazakhstan, he lives in Oxnard, California. In 2019, he won his first minor titles by defeating Cristian Olivas, 14-4, for the vacant WBC Continental Americas and WBO Global middleweight titles. In May 2022, he won the WBO interim world title by knocking out Danny Dignum (14-0-1) in two rounds in Las Vegas. Then, in 2023, he won the WBO title, knocking out Steven Butler (32-3-1) and stopping IBF champion Vincenzo Gualtieri (21-0-1).

In 2024, in his last fight, he stopped Andrei Mikhailovich (21-0), in Sydney, Australia, defending his IBF title by improving to 16-0 with 11 stoppages.

As he follows GGG, having won two world titles in the middleweight division, he should look to unify the title against Cuban WBA champion Erislandy Lara 31-3-3, with 19 stoppages. The WBC champion is Dominican Carlos Adames, 24-1 with 18 stoppages, from Las Vegas. In 2014, he defeated Terrell Gausha, 24-3-1, in his last fight.