Janibek Alimkhanuly vs. Andrei Mikhailovich headlines on ESPN+ this Saturday, July 13th, with lightweights Raymond Muratalla and Tevin Farmer meeting in the co-main event at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Saturday’s event begins at 6:50 p.m. ET, live on ESPN+.
Top Rank Aims to Elevate Janibek’s Stardom
IBF and WBC middleweight champion Janibek (15-0, 10 KOs) defends his two belts against the little-known #3 IBF Mikhailovich (21-0, 13 KOs) in a twelve-round contest.
Janibek—Mikhailovich is a fight that arguably would be better suited for the co-feature than the headliner because it’s not one that will catch the fans’ imaginations.
It’s understandable why it’s in the top spot. Top Rank wants to turn Janibek into a star, but it’s difficult when his opponents aren’t household names. Bob Arum has his work cut out for him trying to make a name for Janibek without one of the brave, ambitious, popular guys stepping up to face him.
The problem of the 31-year-old Kazakh Janibek is that no one wants to fight him. No well-known guys like Chris Eubank Jr. and Jermall Charlo are interested in facing the hard-hitting southpaw Janibek.
Moreover, Terence Crawford has no plans to move up to 160 to face Janibek for his IBF/WBO titles after his match next month against Israil Madrimov.
He will skip the 160-lb division because the powerful southpaw Alimkhanuly would be hard work for him and not someone he could confuse by turning Southpaw frequently.
Muratalla vs. Farmer: An Interesting Co-Main Event
The ten-round chief support fight between #2 WBC & #2 WBO lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla (20-0, 16 KOs) takes on former IBF 130-lb champion Tevin Farmer (33-5-1, 8 KOs) in a fight that should be interesting to watch.
Farmer has a slick style that will make the sharpshooter Muratalla to have to work to land his shots. However, it’s unclear how much Farmer has left.
After losing his IBF super featherweight title to Joseph Diaz in 2020, he was out of the sport for three years. Last year, Farmer resumed his career and beat three random fighters.
Farmer turns 34 on July 30th, and that’s not young for a finesse fighter with no power going up against a young puncher like Muratalla. It might not end well for Farmer if he can’t keep Muratalla off him.
Muratalla’s Ambitions
“I’m ready for the lightweight champions, but I can’t take Tevin Farmer lightly. He is a former world champion who wants another shot,” Muratalla said.