TWO weeks to go before his latest unified world middleweight title defence against Anauel Ngamissengue, Janibek Alimkhanuly remains unsatisfied.

The hard-hitting Kazakh southpaw (16-0, 11 KOs) has been a full titleholder for two-and-a-half years, upgraded from interim status three months after a second-round demolition job against Danny Dignum in May 2022.

His resume leaves a lot to be desired at a time where the divisional depth lacks star power or a clear rivalry nearer the top that would truly crown him as the division's number one, even if boxing politics and mandatory challengers within each of the four sanctioning bodies make it difficult to establish an undisputed champion.

While he's been calling for unification bouts against WBA champion Erislandy Lara and WBC titleholder Carlos Adames, the high-risk, low-reward conundrum and insufficient financial rewards means neither man has yet unified their championships.

Since Bernard Hopkins and Jermain Taylor won all four middleweight titles in September 2004 and July 2005 respectively, there have been nine four-belt rulers across all weight divisions but none at 160-pounds.

Speaking to The Ring earlier this month, former WBO super-featherweight world champion Barry Jones gave his view on a weight class enduring its own peaks and troughs, like any other.

"Middleweight is still looking for a kingpin, but that's not a bad thing. All divisions are the same - look at when I won my world title - super-featherweight had good fighters but was relatively weak. Two years out with my brain scan and you look at the landscape - there was Acelino Freitas [WBO], Floyd Mayweather [WBC], Diego Corrales [IBF] and Joel Casamayor [WBA]."

The quartet were all unbeaten world champions until boxing one another, with Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2021 while Castillo posthumously received the honour three years later. Freitas, who inflicted Jones' first and only career TKO8 defeat in 2000, was named on the IBHOF ballot for 2021-22.

"That's the thing, you want to win a world title but have big names for big money. Back then, Chris Eubank had Nigel Benn, Roy Jones Jr had Hopkins and others to build interest, there's just no sexy names now. That's not to say there aren't world-class guys but it's screaming for someone to dominate, Janibek is the best skill-for-skill but Adames is very hard to beat."

Janibek, who doesn't speak conversational English, doesn't have a large enough profile to command the big-money fights he's been calling for. Coupled with a series of one-sided victories against relatively unheralded opposition, it's easy to see why many feel he has stagnated at world-level as his 32nd birthday draws nearer.

That opinion can change, if Ngamissengue or someone else proves a worthy adversary. IBF junior-middleweight titlist Bakhram Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) captured the imagination of many in 2024, having shown vulnerabilities en route to winning vacant gold against Jack Culcay in Germany last April before dismantling Tim Tszyu with a hand injury six months later.

The pair reside in the same US state of California, share a manager in Egis Klimas and Janibek would be wise to take inspiration from a similarly hard-hitting champion seeking to build on a career-best year in the weight class directly below.