Undefeated middleweight champion boxer Janibek Alimkhanuly is scheduled to defend his belt against Denzel Bentley on Saturday in Las Vegas.
JANIBEK ALIMKHANULY (12-0.8 KO) VS. DENZEL BENTLEY (17-1-1, 14 KOs)
- Day: Saturday, November 12
- Time: 8pm ET / 5pm Pacific Time (main event follows)
- Where: Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas
- TV / Stream: ESPN+
- Assignment: Middleweight (160 pounds)
- Under threat: Alimkhanuly’s WBO title
- Pound-for-pound rating: Not available
- The odds: Alimkhanuly favorite 20-1 (average of many stores)
- Also on the card: Seniesa Estrada vs Jazmin Gala Villarino, strawweight (for Estrada’s WBA title)
- Guess: Alimkhanuly KO 10
- Story: Alimkhanuly, 29 years old, is the 2013 amateur world champion and 2016 track and field athlete from Kazakhstan who has been very fast-tracked as a professional athlete. Southern California-based Southpaw won the WBO’s “interim” title in his last game, a second-round knockout against previously undefeated Danny Dignum in May. He was upgraded to full champion in August. He also stopped veterans Rob Brant and Hassan N’Dam last year who set up the fight with Dignum. Bentley is a 27-year-old boxer from London. He was stopped by £160 heavyweight Felix Cash in three rounds last April but he returned to win three in a row, including knocking out Marcus Morrison in the fourth round in September, to won the title of Alimkhanuly. Also on this card, Los Angeles’ Seniesa Estrada (22-0.9 KO) is scheduled to defend the strawweight title against Jazim Gala Villarino (6-1-2, 1 KO) of Argentina.
