By Ian S Palmer
A pair of unbeaten southpaws will be battling it out for the vacant WBO interim Middleweight Title this Saturday, May 21st as Zhanibek Alimkhanuly of Kazakhstan takes on Danny Dignum of England. The 12-rounder from Las Vegas can be seen live in America on ESPN and ESPN+ while fans in Canada can catch it on TSN 5. Alimkhanuly stopped former world champ Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam in the eighth round in November in his last outing to defend his WBC Contintnental Americas and WBO Global Middleweight Titles while Dignum stopped Grant Dennis in the sixth round in February to retain his WBO European Middleweight Belt.
The 29-year-old Alimkhanuly, who now fights out of Oxnard, California, enters the ring with a perfect record of 11-0 with 7 Ko’s and has boxed 65 rounds since making his pro debut in 2016. Prior to that he enjoyed a fine amateur career as he represented Kazakhstan at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where he was beaten in the quarterfinals. He also won a gold medal at the 2013 World Championships where he beat Anthony Fowler and Jason Quigley.
He reached the quarterfinals of the 2015 World Championships, 2015 Asian Championships and 2010 World Youth Championships, won a gold medal at the 2013 Asian Championships and 2014 Asian Games and also fought in the 2015 World Series of Boxing for Astana Arlans. Alimkhanuly stands just over 5-feet-11-inches tall with a 71.5-inch reach.
He’s a solid puncher with a good chin as he carries around a current knockout ratio of 63.6 per cent. Alimkhanuly also has wins over Milton Nunez, Vaughn Alexander, Steve Martinez, Cristian Olivas, Stuart McLellan and Rob Brant. He’s an excellent prospect with speed, power and fine boxing skills and appears to be entering the prime of his career at the moment.
Dignum is 30 years old and is also unbeaten with a mark of 14-0-1 with 8 Ko’s. He made his pro debut in 2016 and has boxed 73 rounds since. Before that, he was an ABA amateur Middleweight Champion. He’s 6-feet-1-inch tall with an unlisted reach so has a 1.5-inch edge in height over his foe. Dignum possesses decent power with a current knockout ratio of 53.3 per cent and also has a pretty sturdy chin.
The Englishman’s lone draw as a pro was a 10-round split decision with Andrey Sirotkin in April, 2021. Sirotkin has definitely been his toughest opponent so far as the first 10 of his 15 opponents entered the ring with losing records. Dignum is certainly stepping up in class this weekend and this will also be his first pro fight outside of the UK.
Prediction…
Alimkhanuly hasn’t been a pro for long but has plenty of amateur experience and appears to be a solid boxer in all areas. Dignum is a good pro but I just don’t think he’s on the same level as Alimkhanuly at this point of their careers. I’m expecting Alimkhanuly to leave the ring with the interim title Saturday night without too much of a problem.
