Vincenzo Gualtieri fought courageously, but in the sixth round the dream of unifying the title was over: the referee ended a fight in which there was little doubt about the victory of the favorite from Kazakhstan from the first round. Gualtieri loses his IBF belt after just one fight.
The fight began with a slow pace and testing on both sides. Gualtieri offered his Kazakh opponent the center of the ring and relied on counterattacks. In the second round, both fighters increased the pace a little for the first time, Alimkhanuly delivered the first uppercuts with his left punching hand. The German also took more actions himself and repeatedly tried to lure his opponent with provocative hanging guards in order to counterattack. A risk that should not be rewarded.
Gualtieri found it difficult to take clear actions of his own. Instead, the Kazakh clearly dictated what happened. Alimkhanuly also showed his counterattack strength again and again and answered almost every offensive move by the Wuppertal player with his own goals.
In the fifth round, Alimkhanuly hit Gualtieri’s head again with an extremely powerful left uppercut – a hit that had a clear impact for the first time. The Wuppertaler wobbled briefly, but managed to stay on his feet during the break in the lap.
But the Kazakh scored again early in the sixth round – another dry uppercut to the head came through. Gualtieri wobbled again. This time the gong was too far away for the German. Gualtieri appeared clearly injured and shortly afterwards the referee took the German out of the fight. Alimkhanuly was celebrated by his fans in Rosenberg, a suburb of Houston.
Vincenzo Gualtieri lost his IBF title after just one fight. With two important world titles, Janibek Alimkhanuly has finally become the new star of the middleweight division.
The sports show on Sunday (October 15th) from 7:15 p.m. on ARD television will report in detail about the fight.