BN Verdict: Zhanibek Alimkhanuly dominates Vincenzo Gualtieri in a fight that says as much about “world titles” in boxing as Alimkhanuly’s brilliance

LIKE many so-called “unification” fights, the assembly of “middleweight champions” Zhanibek Alimkhanuly and Vincenzo Gualtieri tonight (October 14) on the Fort Bend Community Center in Rosenberg, Texas sounded a lot extra essential and significant on paper than it was in actuality. Similarly, the very fact Alimkhanuly then stopped Gualtieri inside six rounds, and with relative ease, additionally sounds a lot extra spectacular on paper than it was in actuality.

That’s to not say Alimkhanuly, 15-0 (10), wasn’t spectacular in defeating Gualtieri tonight. He was. But it is very important level out that it rapidly grew to become clear we weren’t, regardless of the belts on the road, witnessing a aggressive fight, by no means thoughts the 2 finest middleweights in the world.

One day Alimkhanuly might develop into the perfect, of that there is no such thing as a doubt. He has the beginner pedigree, the poise, the awkwardness, and palms heavy sufficient to harm as many opponents as he bamboozles. Yet for now, though the middleweight division is determined to herald the arrival of a new pressure in a post-Gennadiy Golovkin world, we should attempt to preserve some perspective and each view and price Alimkhanuly on the idea of the opponents he’s beating slightly than the belts he’s accumulating. (Two now, by the best way: the WBO and IBF.)

That Gualtieri provided little in the best way of menace tonight just isn’t Alimkhanuly’s fault, after all, nevertheless it stays true nonetheless. At 30, the identical age as Alimkhanuly, Gualtieri was a man seemingly adequate to seize a vacant IBF belt when outpointing Esquiva Falcao in his hometown of Wuppertal, however, alas, an elite-level fighter that doesn’t make.

And so it proved. Outclassed from the outset, Gualtieri, 21-1-1 (7), struggled to make an impression on Alimkhanuly and was in a position to do little or no to counteract the influence of the Kazakh’s jab and one-twos. He was sound defensively, and at instances exploited his personal awkwardness to respectable impact, however not often did he ever appear like profitable exchanges, much much less rounds.

After 4 of them, all-one-sided, Alimkhanuly lastly made a vital dent in Gualtieri in the fifth, when staggering him with a superb left uppercut, after which, in the next spherical, a flurry of one-twos compelled Gualtieri to the ropes in pursuit of both refuge or a mercy stoppage. It was there towards the ropes he would keep, too, overwhelmed and suffocating, till referee David Fields, having seen sufficient, waved the bout off on the 1:25 mark.

All in all, if, by beating Gualtieri in convincing trend, Alimkhanuly had needed to ship a message to the middleweight division, tonight this was in all probability achieved. However, the louder message, and the one boxing as a sport ought to attempt to heed, has much less to do with Alimkhanuly’s brilliance and his general hazard at 160 kilos and much more to do with how so-called unification fights like Alimkhanuly-Gualtieri undermine and dilute what it actually means to be a “world champion” in 2023.