{"id":253988,"date":"2025-11-01T06:37:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T06:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/253988\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T06:37:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T06:37:12","slug":"i-got-my-eyes-on-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/253988\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I got my eyes on you\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Janibek Alimkhanuly<\/a> and Erislandy Lara<\/a> are set to square off on December 6 in a high-stakes middleweight title unification matchup.
The winner between the WBO and IBF champion Alimkhanuly (17-0, 12 KOs) and WBA middleweight titleholder Lara (31-3-3, 19 KOs) will carry significant cards to entice Terence Crawford<\/a> for a potential clash sometime next year.
Fresh off a career-best win<\/a> against Canelo Alvarez<\/a>, the undisputed super middleweight champion Crawford appears to be inclined to make a run at 160 pounds in pursuit of titles in a sixth weight class. <\/p>\n

Alimkhanuly manager Egis Klimas connected with Crawford this week at the WBO Convention in Bogota, Colombia, and shared a video seated next to the sport\u2019s pound-for-pound top star, who made a bold statement directed toward the middleweight division. <\/p>\n

“I got my eyes on you, Janibek. Good luck,” said Crawford, as he pointed to his eyes and made a fist. <\/p>\n

Alimkhanuly responded to Crawford on social media: “Thank you bro.”<\/p>\n

Alimkhanuly is expected to emerge as the winner against Lara, according to oddsmakers. The Kazakhstani is a minus-480 betting favorite to beat the 42-year-old Cuban southpaw, who’s listed as a plus-330 underdog, per FanDuel.<\/p>\n

The KO artist Alimkhanuly, 32, has scored four consecutive stoppage wins, albeit against inferior opposition. He\u2019s The Ring\u2019s No. 1-rated fighter at 160 pounds. <\/p>\n

The experienced, but aging Lara will be the toughest opponent of Alimkhanuly’s career. Lara has not lost since 2018 and is riding a six-fight winning streak, four of which have come by knockout.<\/p>\n

The other champion in the middleweight division is WBC belt holder Carlos Adames<\/a> (24-1-1, 18 KOs). (The Ring title is vacant.)<\/p>\n

Crawford might prefer that Adames face the winner of Alimkhanuly and Lara in the first half of 2026, and for him to be in a prime position to challenge the last man standing with the intent to become a four-division undisputed champion.<\/p>\n

“He doesn\u2019t need to fight Adames,” said Alimkhanuly. “I\u2019ll beat both Lara and Adames, take all four belts, and then [Crawford] can take his time and get ready to fight me. … On December 6, put on your sunglasses, because I\u2019ll be shining in the ring.” <\/p>\n

The IBF could complicate matters moving forward, however. Matchroom Boxing head Eddie Hearn recently revealed that the winner of Alimkhanuly-Lara will be ordered by the IBF to fight Austin Williams<\/a>, with no exceptions.<\/p>\n

Manouk Akopyan is The Ring\u2019s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Janibek Alimkhanuly and Erislandy Lara are set to square off on December 6 in a high-stakes middleweight title…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,1151,1144,1150,1149,1142,711,1145,1146,1147,1148,1143,49,48,1156,1155,1138,1136,1137,1153,1139,1135,1157,1152,82,1154,1134,1141,1140],"class_list":{"0":"post-253988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-community","10":"tag-boxing-fights","11":"tag-boxing-history","12":"tag-boxing-interviews","13":"tag-boxing-magazine","14":"tag-boxing-news","15":"tag-boxing-photos","16":"tag-boxing-rankings","17":"tag-boxing-results","18":"tag-boxing-schedule","19":"tag-boxing-videos","20":"tag-ca","21":"tag-canada","22":"tag-disqualification","23":"tag-draw","24":"tag-fight","25":"tag-fighter","26":"tag-fighter-news","27":"tag-knockout","28":"tag-latest-boxing-matches","29":"tag-ring","30":"tag-ring-magazine","31":"tag-split-decision","32":"tag-sports","33":"tag-technical-knockout","34":"tag-the-ring","35":"tag-top-fighters","36":"tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}