Janibek Alimkhanuly did not at all squander the moment.

The Kazakh southpaw broke down and eventually stopped Germany’s Vincenzo Gualtieri in the sixth round of their WBO/IBF unification bout between unbeaten middleweights. No knockdowns were scored on the night but Alimkhanuly repeatedly hurt Gualtieri en route to a stoppage victory at 1:25 of the sixth round in their ESPN-televised main event Saturday evening at Fort Bend Epicenter in Rosenberg, Texas.

“This is my style of fighting,” Alimkhanuly told ESPN’s Mark Kriegel through translator and manager Egis Klimas. “This is ‘Qazaq Style’ and I am here to stay.”  

There was little separation between the pair of unbeaten middleweight titlists, though the offense was limited both ways. Gualtieri landed the bout’s first telling blow, a right hand over the top of Alimkhanuly’s guard. Alimkhanuly worked his jab to inch his way inside and looked to set up his uppercut but Gualtieri had a gameplan to neutralize that strategy.

Alimkhanuly threw a purposeful right jab in round two, which was enough to slow down Gualtieri to a crawl. The right weapon was enough to develop swelling under Gualtieri’s eye, enough to force him to switch from conventional to his natural southpaw stance.

There was little change in the flow of the fight in round three. Alimkhanuly took what was offered before he made a point to force the action in round four. The jab was on point as was his left hand behind it. Gualtieri landed a straight left hand midway through the round, by far his standout moment in an otherwise lackluster offering from the Germany-based in his U.S. debut.

Alimkhanuly finally connected with his vaunted left uppercut. It came behind a pair of jabs late in round five, which forced Gualtieri to dip his legs and stagger into the ropes. He was able to remain upright and rode out a right hook to the body to make it out of the round.

He was merely on borrowed time.

The body language of Gualtieri was immediately detected by Alimkhanuly, who twice hurt his unbeaten foe in round six. A left uppercut by the unbeaten Kazakh once again caused Gualtieri to wobble but covered up in time to avoid an immediate follow-up. Alimkhanuly went on the attack as he sensed the end was near.

Referee David Fields appeared ready to stop the fight but instead disrupted Alimkhanuly’s rhythm with an odd separation despite absence of a break in the action. An ensuing volley of power punches by Alimkhanuly did the trick, as a defenseless Gualtieri was rescued by the third man.

The one-sided defeat ended Gualtieri’s IBF title reign after just three months. He won the belt in a July 1 victory over Esquiva Falcao in his hometown of Wuppertal, Germany and immediately agreed to unify. It ended in his first defeat, a lopsided one at that as he fell to 21-1-1 (7KOs) and no longer with his title in tow.

“Congratulations to Janibek,” Gualtieri said after the defeat. “He was the better fighter. I think it was a little early to end the fight but congratulations to him. He had a good punch, you can see that in my face. I think it was a little bit early but he won and I have respect for him.”

Alimkhanuly advanced to 15-0 (10KOs) and provided the middleweight division with its first unified titlist since countryman Gennadiy Golovkin held the WBA and IBF middleweight belts one year ago. Golovkin since vacated both titles and has not fought since a repeat defeat to Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez last September in Las Vegas.

Final Compubox numbers illustrated the complete lack of effort put forth by Gualtieri, who was credited with landing just 22 of 85 total punches (25.9%). Alimkhanuly landed 82-of-243 punches (33.7%), including a blistering 59.5% of his power shots (44-of-74).

“We knew from the beginning that he would never fight back,” Alimkhanuly insisted after the fight. “His plan was to wait for us to get tired but that was never going to happen.”

Alimkhanuly made the third successful defense of the WBO strap he initially claimed in an interim title fight when he knocked out Danny Dignum in the second round last May in Las Vegas. He was upgraded last summer when Demetrius Andrade relinquished the title to instead compete at super middleweight.

A decision win over Denzel Bentley and a brutal second-round knockout of Steven Butler followed before Alimkhanuly was able to land a title unification bout.

He’s not done yet, at least not with his dogged pursuit.

Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22KOs) has been permitted to retain his WBC middleweight title despite having not fought since June 2021. Erislandy Lara was upgraded to full WBA titlist when Golovkin refused to face him earlier this year. Both are tentatively due to enter separate title defenses later this year, though they are among a massive queue of fighters under the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) banner who await a confirming fight date.

Should they both make it to the ring in the next couple of months, it would leave the division’s three titleholders on the same relative schedule headed into 2024. That would leave little excuse to mix and match, in a division in desperate need of a star to emerge.

“What we would love to do is add the other two belts to our collection,” insisted Alimkhanuly. “We are going to talk to our promoter Top Rank to make that happen.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox