(Montreal) Quebecer Steven Butler will get a second chance at the world championship when he faces Kazakh Zhanibek Alimkhanuly for the World Boxing Organization (WBO) middleweight title on May 13 in California.
Butler (32-3-1, 26 KOs) is the sixth contender for the belt held by the 29-year-old Kazakh. The 27-year-old Montrealer is also ranked 11e of the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and 13e at the World Boxing Council (WBC).
Alimkhanuly (13-0, 8 K.-O.) is world champion since his victory by K. -O. in the second round obtained at the expense of Danny Dignum last May. He confirmed this title, then interim, by defeating Denzel Bentley by unanimous decision six months later.
He defended the colors of Kazakhstan at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, where he finished fifth in the under 75 kg, the equivalent of middleweight.
The duel will take place at Stockton Arena. The event, a collaboration of Eye of the Tiger Management and Top Rank, will air on ESPN and ESPN+ in the United States. It will be available in Canada on pay-per-view or on the Punching Grace streaming site.
This is the second time Butler has had the chance to win a world title. In December 2019, he traveled to Yokohama Arena to challenge then-World Boxing Association (WBA) champion Ryota Murata. The latter had won by K.-O. technique in the fifth round.
The pandemic then deprived Butler of boxing for almost 14 months and when he returned to the ring, in Cuernavaca, Mexico, he was surprised by Jose Macias de Jesus, who also won by K. – O. technique in the fifth round.
Butler has won his last four outings, however. He first defeated Hector Manuel Zepeda in three rounds in his comeback fight, before winning the North American Boxing Federation (NABF) middleweight belt by unanimous decision over Brandon Brewer, in June 2022.
He has since defended this belt twice, by K. -O. technical in the second round over Mark DeLuca and by unanimous decision against Joshua Conley, helping him to climb the world rankings of three of the four major sanctioning organizations.