Alimkhanuly-Dignum Interim Title Fight And Jamel Herring Returns May 21
The site is set for the fight between Janibek Alimkhanuly and Danny Dignum, who meet for the vacant WBO interim middleweight title on May 21 in the main event of a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card. The site will be Resorts World Las Vegas, which opened last June and recently hosted its first boxing event, multiple sources told Fight Freaks Unite and Big Fight Weekend.
The card will also include the return of former WBO junior lightweight titlist Jamel Herring in the co-feature.
Herring (23-3, 11 KOs), 36, of Coram, New York, is moving up to lightweight and will fight in the co-feature against a foe to be determined, Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti told Big Fight Weekend. “He is going to be on the card and now we just have to find an opponent to fight him,” Moretti said, also confirming that Herring will rise in weight.
The fight will be Herring’s first since losing the WBO 130-pound belt by one-sided 10th-round knockout to Shakur Stevenson in October and his first since parting ways with trainer Brian McIntyre to work with Manny Robles.
Herring defended his title three times before 2016 U.S. Olympic silver medalist and former WBO featherweight titlist Stevenson dethroned him in the in Atlanta.
Alimkhanuly (11-0, 7 KOs), 28, a Kazakhstan native fighting out of Oxnard, California, and Dignum (14-0-1, 8 KOs), 29, of England, will vie for the interim belt while full titleholder Demetrius Andrade is moving up to face Zach Parker for the vacant WBO interim super middleweight belt. If Andrade wins, he will have to decide whether to remain at 168 pounds or return to 160 and defend against the Alimkhanuly-Dignum winner.
Andrade has been frustrated by the inability to land a big-money fight with a top opponent at middleweight. He has been unsuccessful in getting bouts with either WBC titleholder Jermall Charlo or Gennadiy Golovkin, who knocked out Ryota Murata in Japan last Saturday to unify the IBF and WBA belts and is next slated to challenge undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez in September if Alvarez defeats WBA light heavyweight titleholder Dmitry Bivol on May 7.
Since 2000, award-winning reporter Dan Rafael has covered boxing full time and been ringside for thousands of fights, first for five years at USA Today and then for 15 years at ESPN, where he wrote and appeared on various television, radio and streaming programs. In 2013, Dan was honored by the Boxing Writers Association of America with the Nat Fleischer award for career excellence in boxing journalism. Dan brings his great insight to the Big Fight Weekend site, podcast and more!
