Unified middleweight champion receives second suspension.
For most, Janibek Alimkhanuly was the best middleweight in the world. He brutalised his opposition like Kazakh contemporary Gennady Golovkin before him, and he was the only champion of his weight class who actively called out the other beltholders.
The man known as “Qazaq Style” seemed to rule the roost at 160 pounds and was favoured to beat WBA champion Erislandy Lara when they were scheduled to meet on the 6th of December.
Sadly, we didn’t get to see that fight, as Janibek would test positive for meldonium four days before it was due to take place. As a result, the three-belt unification was pulled from the Lamont Roach Jr. vs. Isaac Cruz undercard.
Of course, Janibek has protested his innocence since, but that didn’t stop him from being handed a one-year suspension by the WBO, one of the two organisations whose belts he holds.
Just under a week later, Janibek has now been given a six-month suspension by the Kazakhstan Professional Boxing Federation, who concluded that the unified middleweight champion unknowingly ingested meldonium through the use of medically prescribed Ripronat, a brand of cardiovascular medicine.
Janibek took this medicine upon suffering a sudden deterioration of health, with the official medical report from the Adam Clinic (the medical centre Janibek visited) listing him as experiencing “acute severe headache, nausea and vomiting, dizziness, transient bilateral visual disturbance, limb numbness, [and] chest pressure.”
It was determined that Janibek had suffered a transient ischemic attack caused by a vertebrobasilar insufficiency, or in other words, a mini stroke due to temporarily reduced blood flow to the back of the brain.
This medical episode reportedly occurred on the 7th of May.
While the IBF has yet to make its decision on Janibek’s status as champion, the WBO has ruled that he must face the winner of the WBO interim title fight between Denzel Bentley and Endry Saavedra as soon as his ban is up.
BoxingScene has confirmed that the Kazakhstan Professional Boxing Federation (KPBF) has issued a six-month suspension to Janibek Alimkhanuly.
đź”—Full details: https://t.co/4BRvfw2Xgd pic.twitter.com/hKEhHN68iQ
— BoxingScene.com (@boxingscene) February 26, 2026
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