Janibek Alimkhanuly is more interested in fighting Saul “Canelo” Alvarez at super middleweight than he is in becoming the undisputed champion at 160lbs.

The IBF and WBO middleweight champion on Saturday, at the Barys Arena in Astana, Kazakhstan, defends his titles against Anauel Ngamissengue of France.

Saturday’s contest represents his first in his home country since 2017, since when he has established himself as the world’s leading middleweight.

It is also his first since the draw that unfolded between the WBC champion Carlos Adames of the Dominican Republic and Hamzah Sheeraz – the Briton long-anointed the future of the division.

Victories over Adames and the Cuban Erislandy Lara, who holds the WBA title, may even be the most effective way to tempt Mexico’s Alvarez – who fights for the undisputed super-middleweight title against William Scull, another Cuban, on May 3 – but Alimkhanuly told BoxingScene: “There are a lot of happenings at middleweight. Hamzah Sheeraz, [Erislandy] Lara and Carlos Adames. Those guys are good, but they are out of our range. They’re not in my capacities. 

“I witnessed [the fight between Adames and Sheeraz, but not like a [judge] – I was like a boxer witnessing this, and from that perspective, I witnessed and I observed how they boxed; their styles and other things they applied, during this fight. But I cannot judge [the controversial scoring]. I cannot judge. I can just be a boxer who witnessed this fight.

“I’m not looking for number twos. I’m trying to get number ones, like ‘Canelo’ and the other guys.”

Before agreeing to fight Ngamissengue, 29, Alimkhanuly convincingly defeated New Zealand’s Andrei Mikhailovich, but did so three months later than scheduled because of his struggles to make weight. He, regardless, insisted his desire to fight Alvarez has little to do with that struggles.

“Since 160 is not a problem I can go up, but I can go back down,” he said. “I see no problems in terms of the period and in terms of capacities. I have enough capacity.”