Zhanibek Alimkhanuly vs. Erislandy Lara Santoya

Nearly finalized now for the Cruz vs. Roach undercard (yes, a middleweight championship unification is being put subordinate on the bill to a ten-rounder...I'll spare you my usual rant...) - December 6th at the Frost Bank Arena in San Antonio.

This will be Lara's second defense of the full WBA middleweight title (and fourth defense if you include his capture and single defense of of the "regular" belt prior to his promotion in 2023...he is technically on a 4-0 run in WBA championship bouts at middleweight: Thomas "Cornflake" LaManna, Gary "Spike" O'Sullivan, Michael "Pretty Boy" Zerafa, and Danny "Swift" García). On the line will also be the IBF & WBO middleweight titles, in Alimkhanuly's third & fourth defense respectively.

For the 42 year old Cuban, it will be his first time in the ring in just over 12½ months. For his Kazakhstani fellow southpaw champion, a decade his junior, it will be his third match in the same time span - but Alimkhanuly did have a full year layoff of his own before that October 2023 until October 2024).

Lara gives up 2½″ of height. Alimkhanuly gives up 3½″ of reach.

There was long speculation that Alkimhanuly was eyeing a unification bout with Carlos Adames, the holder of the green belt. Alimkhanuly has been making cryptic posts on social media for the last month hyping up his next big fight announcement, but made clear at one point that it would not be with the Dominican - stating the WBC titlist was ducking him. That pretty much narrowed a "big fight announcement" down to Lara, or Alikhanuly's nebulously not-quite-retired countryman Gennady Golovkin.

 

Went looking to see if there were any betting lines yet and found this quote from somebody on B-Scene:

"This is a 60-40 fight in favor of Janibek. Can't wait to see the odds..."