Alimkhanuly Wants the WBO Belt, Then Canelo: "I'm Ready"

The line to fight Canelo Alvarez just reshuffled, and it's Janibek Alimkhanuly doing the shoving. The former unified middleweight champ says he's ready to claim a vacant WBO super-middleweight belt and then unify with Canelo — provided the Mexican beats Christian Mbilli in Riyadh on October 31. Canelo, 63-2-2 with 39 knockouts, is chasing a world title back after dropping his undisputed crown to Terence Crawford last year.

The opening came when WBO champion Hamzah Sheeraz — 23-0-1, 19 KOs — vacated his belt rather than defend against Alimkhanuly, his mandatory challenger. Sheeraz had been the loudest name angling for a Canelo payday. Now he's stepped aside, and Alimkhanuly, sitting at WBO #1, is happy to walk through the door he left open.

Alimkhanuly made his intentions blunt on X. He said money isn't the motivation, that he just needs the title, and that unifying with Canelo is the whole plan. There's a wrinkle worth flagging: Alimkhanuly lost one of his 160lb belts over a failed drug test, which is part of why this move up to 168 has an edge to it.

The Road to the Vacant Belt

The WBO is expected to order a vacant title bout between Alimkhanuly and Denmark's Jacob Bank, ranked WBO #3 with a 19-0 (11 KO) mark and a fifth-round knockout in his last outing. Meanwhile #2-ranked Diego Pacheco — a perfect 26-0 with 19 KOs — meets Darius Fulghum on November 14. That's a busy super-middleweight ladder for a division built around one man's next move.

Canelo Has His Own Job First

None of this happens if Canelo slips against Mbilli, the undefeated WBC champion. At 36 and with 68 pro fights on the clock, Canelo is fighting to prove he's still a top-level force after the Crawford defeat exposed his ceiling. Win, and the unification talk becomes real. Lose, and the whole line — Sheeraz, Alimkhanuly, all of them — is waiting on nothing.

For now, Alimkhanuly is doing the smart thing: getting himself a belt to bring to the table before the negotiation ever starts. Whether Canelo picks a Kazakh spoiler with a doping cloud over him as his next dance partner is another question entirely. But the pieces are moving, and Alimkhanuly wants everyone to know he's first in the queue.