Undefeated WBO middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly (14-0, 9 KOs) massacred his voluntary challenger Steven Butler (32-4-1, 26 KOs) in a second round knockout on Saturday night on ESPN at the Stockton Arena in Stockton, California.
The fight was over after the powerful southpaw Janibek caught the #6 ranked WBO contender Butler with a left uppercut under his chin in round two, snapping his head back and causing his legs to turn to jelly.
Butler was wobbling after that punch landed, and Janibek immediately pounced, hitting him with two chopping lefts to the head that floored him.
From there, Janibek knocked the badly shaken Butler down twice before the referee Jerry Reiss stopped the contest at 2:25 of round two.
It was an easy decision for Reiss to make because Butler was laid out from the third knockdown, and there was no way he could have continued fighting even if he wanted to.
After the fight, Janibek gave a little speech, calling out Canelo Alvarez and Jermall Charlo.
Unfortunately, Janibek’s performance was much too good for him to get there of those two to willingly agree to fight him. Janibek has already got several strikes against him, hoping to get a big name like Canelo or Jermall to fight him.
A. Southpaw
B. Doesn’t speak English well
C. Fights on a different network
D. Small fanbase
Janibek will likely need to keep toiling away in obscurity without becoming a household name in the U.S.
What Janibek needs to do to carve out a large fan base and eventually force the popular fighters to face him is to fight seven to ten times per year against anyone willing to fight him.
Top Rank might not have the dates for Janibek to be that active, so he’s going to be stuck fighting twice a year, and it’s going to be next to impossible for him to get the top guys to fight him at that rate.
In the chief support bout on tonight’s card, bantamweight Jason Moloney (26-2, 19 KOs) beat Vincent Astrolabio (18-4, 13 KOs) by a twelve round majority decision to win the vacant WBO 118-pound title.
At 32, Moloney captured his first world title, and he looked excellent tonight. Moloney fought like a matador, fighting a bull. Astrolabio was swinging for the fences all night, trying to knock out Moloney with single shots.
The scores were:
- 115-113 – Moloney
- 116-112 – Moloney
- 114-114
The crowd frequently booed, not appreciating the boxing skills of Moloney and wanting him to stand and brawl with Astrolabio.