To celebrate the career of Gennady Golovkin, set to fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez this weekend at the age of 40, we take a look at the top 10 boxers from Kazakhstan currently active.
1 Gennady Golovkin
By far the biggest export in Kazakh boxing, Golovkin, now 40, has terrorized the middleweight division since 2010, losing just once in that time to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Big moments include wins over Danny Jacobs, Sergiy Derevyanchenko and, earlier this year, Ryota Murata in Japan.
2 Zhanibek Alimkhanuly
Middleweight southpaw Alimkhanuly is currently 12-0, winning eight of those fights by stoppage. In the last 14 months he has stopped Rob Brant (RTD 8), Hassan N’Dam (TKO 8) and Danny Dignum (TKO 2), putting himself very much on the map.
3 Sergey Lipinets
A battle-hardened aggressor, Lipinets became an IBF super lightweight belt holder in 2017, when he outpointed Akihiro Kondo, only to lose the belt in his first defense against Mikey Garcia. The last time he stopped Omar Figueroa Jr. in eight rounds to win the WBC super lightweight belt.
4 Meirim Nursultanov
Nursultanov, another Oxnard, California-based Kazakh, turned pro in 2016 and is now 17-0 as a middleweight. This year he has stopped both Andrey Sirotkin and Sebastian Horacio Papeschi in five rounds.
5 Zhan Kossobutsky
A big-hitting southpaw, Kossobutskiy finished 17 of his 18 pro wins inside the scheduled distance and subsequently emerged as a dangerous man at heavyweight. His most notable victories so far have been against Johann Duhaupas (TKO 5) and Alexis Garcia (TKO 5).
6 wings of Islam
Although he came up short in his last fight against Jimmy Kelly in February, Islam had won all 28 fights before that, including victories over Brandon Cook and Walter Kautondokwa.
7 Daniyar Yeleussinov
Still relatively unproven as a pro, Yeleussinov is nonetheless 11-0 and a former top-tier amateur. So far in his professional career, he stopped Julius Indongo in two rounds and outscored Juan Hernán Leal by 12 points.
8 Ruslan Madiyev
Maidyev has been beaten a couple of times as a pro, losing to Pablo Cesar Cano and Danielito Zorrilla, but he also managed to pick up decent wins against Jesus Antonio Perez Campos and Luis Hernandez Ramos to move his record to 14-2.
9 Yerbosenium Aidos
Super middleweight Yerbossynuly is 16-0 with 11 wins inside the distance, and last year he stopped Lennox Allen in 11 rounds. Before that, he knocked out undefeated Ghanaian Issah Samir in three.
10 Ali Akhmedov
Although Carlos Góngora stopped him in the 12th round in 2020, Akhmedov has been impressive, winning 18 professional fights and stopping David Zegarra (RTD 3) and Marcus McDaniel (TKO 3).
