On October 14, 2023, the 30-year-old IBF middleweight champion, Vincenzo Gualtieri (21-0-1, 7 KOs), and the 30-year-old WBO middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly (14-0, 9 KOs) met in a title-unification fight.
Gualtieri came in to the fight on a 6-fight win streak with a 31% KO rate, and was fighting after a gap of 3 months and 13 days. Alimkhanuly was on a 14-fight win streak with a 64% KO rate, and fighting after a layoff of 5 months and 1 day.
Janibek Alimkhanuly stopped Vincenzo Gualtieri via TKO in the 6th round of the 12-round world-title fight and unified the IBF and WBO middleweight titles. Alimkhanuly improves his record to 15-0 (10 KOs), while Gualtieri adds a loss to his record at 21-1-1.