Boxing is at its best when its glamour divisions are thriving.
One major step to ensuring that is staging a title-unification bout such as Erislandy Lara versus Janibek Alimkhanuly for three of the four middleweight belts in December.
Premier Boxing Champions is placing Alimkhanuly-Lara on its December 6 pay-per-view (Prime Video, PPV.COM) card in San Antonio headlined by the WBC interim 140lbs title bout pitting Mexico’s Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz versus super-featherweight champion Lamont Roach Jnr.
On Tuesday’s episode of ProBoxTV’s BoxingScene Today, analysts and former world champions Chris Algieri and Paulie Malignaggi discussed the bout that matches two veterans with decorated amateur backgrounds from Cuba (Lara) and Kazakhstan [Alimkhanuly].
Algieri said he’s impressed with 42-year-old Lara’s transformation from his 2008 pro debut as a boxer to a more stationary puncher coming off a stoppage of two-division champion Danny Garcia and a second-round knockout of Michael Zerafa last year.
Still maintaining some of the boxing skill that allowed him to nearly upset Canelo Alvarez more than a decade ago while participating in the 2018 fight of the year versus Jarrett Hurd, WBA champion Lara 31-3-3 (19 KOs) now has the opportunity to gather the WBO and IBF belts belonging to Alimkhanuly 17-0 (12 KOs).
Like Lara, WBC champion Carlos Adames also fights for PBC. That connection would make an undisputed bout quite logical should Lara win.
The middleweight division “is coming together and there’s more of a clear picture of where the division is going,” Malignaggi said. “Adames might be the best in the division... you can create some excitement if this unification winner is going to meet Adames.”
Just beneath 160lbs, the junior middleweights stand as the sport’s deepest division. Current titleholders Bakhram Murtazaliev (IBF) and Sebastian Fundora (WBC) and unbeaten contenders Vergil Ortiz Jnr and Jaron “Boots” Ennis are all capable of “migrating,” Algieri said. “Or [new undisputed super-middleweight champion] Terence Crawford might be enticed to come down [and fight for a sixth division title].”
Malignaggi responded, “Suddenly, the middleweight division gets a lot more interesting.”
Lara and Alimkhanuly’s fighting styles might not lead to the most thrilling bout given their studious approach to the craft of boxing.
Alimkhanuly posted more than 300 amateur bouts. Being 10 years younger and naturally bigger – he fell ill and withdrew from a 2024 title defense while cutting weight – likely makes him the favorite.
“There’s a high level of experience [and the potential for] lots of chess,” Malignaggi said.
Lara complements his left-handed stance with the advanced-age power that compares favorably to the veteran power once displayed by Thomas Hearns and Juan Manuel Marquez.
“You favor Janibek [for the age and size advantages], but if he turns in another dud performance, Lara is the kind to beat him,” Malignaggi said. “Lara never really loses. He keeps fights close.”
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
