Janibek Alimkhuly and Erislandy Lara will reportedly be fighting in a three-belt middleweight unification clash, potentially on December 6 on PBC on pay-per-view. This would be part of the Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz vs. Lamont Roach card.
Janibek’s Road to Undisputed
IBF and WBO middleweight champion Alimkhanuly (17-0, 12 KOs) will face WBA champion Lara (31-3-3, 19 KOs) in a fight that will put the winner in a great position to face either Terence Crawford or WBC champion Carlos Adames.
Crawford Lurking at 160
Given Crawford’s habit of fighting only once a year, it’s likely he’ll sit and wait until the winner of the Janibek-Lara fight battles Adames for the 160-lb undisputed championship. That way, Crawford can slide in and battle for all four belts at once like he did at 168 against Canelo Alvarez without having to do all the back-breaking hard work of fighting twice for the titles.
Lara, 42, will be coming off a 15-month break when he faces Janibek, 32, on December 6. The Cuban Erislandy last fought against Danny Garcia, stopping him in the ninth round on September 14, 2024. For a fighter in his 40s, Lara looked pretty good, but he wasn’t facing one of the upper-level fighters at middleweight. The former two-division world champion Garcia is now just a shell of the fighter he once was during his prime nine years ago.
Adames Holds the Key
The 2016 Olympic bronze medalist, Janibek, has been pushing Carlos Adames really hard for the last couple of years, since 2023, trying to persuade him to face him. It hasn’t worked, and might not ever.
“News just posted that you’re going to get Janibek facing Lara. Then he’s [Janibek] is going to have three belts,” said Tim Bradley on his YouTube channel, reacting to today’s report of middleweight champions Janibek Alimkhanuly and Erislandy Lara in talks for a unification clash in December.
“Then you’ve got [WBC middleweight champion Carlos] Adames. I think Janibek has got the opportunity to sew up all four belts and become undisputed at middleweight. You’ve got Terence Crawford talking about going down to 160. We might get another undisputed match for Crawford.”
If Adames thinks there’s a chance that he can land that Crawford fight, it’s doubtful that he’s going to want to risk his soft hide fighting the winner of the Janibek vs. Lara fight. Why would he? He can just sit back and wait for Crawford to look in his direction for a big payday.