Janibek Alimkhanuly will take a step up in competition against a former world champion in his next fight.

BoxingScene.com has learned Alimkhanuly will box Rob Brant on June 26 in Las Vegas. Their 10-round middleweight match will be the co-feature before former three-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko meets Masayoshi Nakatani in the 12-round main event.

ESPN+ will stream those two fights following a full undercard from The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

Alimkhanuly (9-0, 5 KOs), a southpaw from Kazakhstan, has won four of his past five fights by knockout since he beat Vaughn Alexander (then 12-1) by split decision in an eight-rounder in November 2018 at the University of Texas at El Paso’s Don Haskins Center. The 28-year-old Alimkhanuly knocked out Argentina’s Gonzalo Coria (16-4, 6 KOs) in the second round of his most recent fight, a scheduled 10-rounder October 9 at MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas.

In Brant, Alimkhanuly will encounter a former WBA world middleweight champion who is trying to earn his way back to another title shot.

Brant beat Vitaliy Kopylenko by technical knockout in his last appearance. The 30-year-old Brant (26-2, 18 KOs) dominated Ukraine’s Kopylenko (28-3, 16 KOs) before their scheduled 10-round bout was stopped following the fifth round August 22 at MGM Grand Conference Center.

The Dallas resident’s impressive victory over Kopylenko marked Brant’s debut with trainer Brian McIntyre in his corner. McIntyre also trains unbeaten WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford.

Brant’s win against Kopylenko also was his first fight following a disastrous second-round, technical-knockout loss to Ryota Murata in their middleweight championship rematch. Japan’s Murata (16-2, 13 KOs) regained his WBA world 160-pound crown from Brant in July 2019 in Osaka, about 8½ months after Brant upset the 2012 Olympic gold medalist by 12-round unanimous decision at Park Theater in Las Vegas.

Alimkhanuly and Brant are promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., which also represents Lomachenko.

Ukraine’s Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KOs) will fight for the first time against Japan’s Nakatani (19-1, 13 KOs) since he lost the WBA, WBC franchise and WBO lightweight titles to Teofimo Lopez on October 17 at MGM Grand Conference Center. Brooklyn’s Lopez (16-0, 12 KOs) is the only opponent who has beaten Nakatani, who lost a 12-round unanimous decision to Lopez in July 2019 at MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.