{"id":200072,"date":"2025-10-14T19:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T19:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/200072\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T19:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T19:16:08","slug":"oldest-boxing-world-champion-agrees-unification-clash-that-could-hold-implications-for-terence-crawford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/200072\/","title":{"rendered":"Oldest boxing world champion agrees unification clash that could hold implications for Terence Crawford"},"content":{"rendered":"

Erislandy Lara and Janibek Alimkhanuly have reportedly agreed to meet in a middleweight unification clash at the back end of 2025.<\/p>\n

Boxing’s oldest world champion, Lara, 42, will place his WBA belt on the line, alongside Alimkhanuly’s IBF and WBO straps.<\/p>\n

\"Janibek<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Alimkhanuly is the IBF and WBO middleweight world championCredit: Mikey Williams\/Top Rank<\/p>\n

According to Ring Magazine’s Mike Coppinger, the bout will fall on the undercard of Lamont Roach and Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz’s headliner on December 6 in San Antonio, Texas.<\/p>\n

Pound-for-pound king Terence Crawford<\/a> will be keeping a close eye on the fight after teasing a potential move to 160lbs in the aftermath<\/a> of his historic victory over Canelo Alvarez<\/a> in September.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Netflix broadcast panel post-fight, Crawford said: “My gut says the same thing [about my next steps].<\/p>\n

“I’m going to sit down with my team and discuss what is next in the future for\u00a0Terence Crawford<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“But who knows, I might go down to 160lbs.”<\/p>\n

Middleweight remains the only division from lightweight to super middleweight that ‘Bud’ hasn’t held a world title in.<\/p>\n

Picking up gold there would tie him with Oscar De La Hoya for the second most weight classes conquered at six.<\/p>\n

And if the winner of Janibek vs Lara can get an undisputed fight locked in with WBC champion Carlos Adames over the coming months, then a move down in weight would be even more appealing for Crawford.<\/p>\n

What have Erislandy Lara and Janibek Alimkhanuly achieved in boxing?<\/p>\n

Janibek (17-0) has been a title holder since 2022, when he was upgraded from interim to full WBO world champion.<\/p>\n

He saw off Britain’s Denzel Bentley and Canada’s Steven Butler before snatching the IBF’s version of the 160lbs belt from Vincenzo Gualtieri in October 2023.<\/p>\n

\"Crawford<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Crawford is considering a move to middleweightCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Alimkhanuly was last in action in April when he blasted away Anauel Ngamissengue in five rounds.<\/p>\n

He had originally been in talks with Adames, but those discussions have since fizzled out.<\/p>\n

Lara (31-3-3) retired Danny Garcia on his stool last September to retain his black and gold strap.<\/p>\n

The Cuban became the full WBA champion after his ‘regular’ belt was elevated in 2023.<\/p>\n

Lara’s best years were spent at super welterweight, where he held the ‘regular’ and ‘super’ versions of the WBA belt from 2014 to 2021.<\/p>\n

Before embarking on this lengthy title reign, he famously pushed Canelo Alvarez all the way to the final bell<\/a> in a nip-and-tuck affair in July 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Erislandy Lara and Janibek Alimkhanuly have reportedly agreed to meet in a middleweight unification clash at the back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6102,78449,78448,101,9553,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-200072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-news","10":"tag-erislandy-lara","11":"tag-janibek-alimkhanuly","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-terence-crawford","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}