‘Absolute chaos’: Wrong anthem, farcical scenes stun as Janibek KO's Mikhailovich

Middleweight king Janibek Alimkhanuly’s title defence against Andrei Mikhailovich in Sydney has been rocked by farcical scenes.

Middleweight boxing king Janibek Alimkhanuly has knocked out New Zealand’s Andrei Mikhailovich in the ninth round but it’s only come after farcical scenes at The Star in Sydney.

A short No Limit Boxing card headlined by the IBF world title fight between Janibek and Mikhailovich had already been mired in controversy before the fighters even graced the ring.

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Janibek, who holds both the IBF and WBO middleweight world titles, was originally only going to put the IBF belt up for grabs.

But on the morning of the fight, the WBO made the shock call to order Janibek to also make a voluntary defence of their strap, stating if he didn’t, the title would be vacated.

Discussions throughout the day between promoter No Limit, Janibek’s manager Egis Klimas and the WBO ultimately decided to leave the fight only for the IBF belt.

However, the chaos wasn’t over as it continued in the ring.

Before the fight even began, Janibek and his team were left perplexed, while the Kazakh fans were furious in the crowd as the wrong national anthem of Kazakhstan was played.

CODE Sports reported the Anthem of the Republic of Kazakhstan was played, which was the national anthem between the nation’s independence in 1991 and 2006. However, the anthem had the same melody of the Anthem of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic but with new lyrics.

On January 7, 2006, it was replaced by Menıñ Qazaqstanym, the current Kazakh anthem.

After some discussion in the middle as the song rang out, the volume was seemingly turned down slightly but allowed to finish.

Fans labelled the drama “disrespectful”, and it appeared to have given Janibek even more ammo to unload on Mikhailovich.

Janibek knew something was wrong. Photo: Fox Sports

Janibek and his team were bemused. Photo: Fox Sports

The fans were not happy. Photo: Fox Sports

It was a bizarre start to the fight that just got weirder when the fight began.

Mikhailovich looked to be all but knocked out in the second round after near farcical scenes.

Janibek was all over Mikhailovich for the final minute of the second round when the Kazakh champion landed a left across the face of the New Zealander.

It appeared Mikhailovich’s legs were gone as the challenger tried to stay on his feet, using the ropes and just plain will to stay on his feet as Janibek unloaded.

“This one does not have long left,” Ben Damon said on Fox Sports.

But the drama erupted when the bell rang with 10 seconds left in the round and referee Katsuhiko Nakamura said to fight on with Mikhailovich landing a shot on Janibek as he walked to his corner.

“We’ve heard the time keeper ring a bell but it hasn’t been stopped, but now it is,” Damon said as Mikhailovich hit the canvas.

“There is absolute chaos here in Sydney.”

Mikhailovich faceplanted as he tried to get up. Photo: Fox Sports

Mikhailovich at the end of the second. Photo: Fox Sports

As the actual bell rang, Mikhailovich hit the canvas on wobbly legs, seemingly falling over twice before getting back to his feet.

The referee did a full count with Mikhailovich saying he was fine, before Nakamura said “fight”, despite the round being over.

“Mikhailovich looks gone … What is happening? What is happening?” Damon said.

“The referee has completely lost control of the situation with the timekeeper. It was the end of the round, he counted, then he told them to box — the stool was already in the corner.”

Sam Goodman said: “Absolute chaos.”

But while it looked a formality from there, Mikhailovich showed a huge amount of toughness and bravery, forcing the Kazakh the ninth round before finally succumbing to the onslaught from Janibek.

A huge left flush on the nose was enough as Nakamura waved off the fight.

It was a masterclass from the Kazakh, who won every round on two of the cards, losing just two on the third.

Goodman said: “Just to make it that far after where he was was honestly incredible.

“From where he was in round two, no one would have seen him making it that far after that.”

Janibek gave some props to Mikhailovich after the result.

“He’s a good boxer, he has a very good team and I wanted to wish him luck,” Janibek said.

He also called out WBC champion Carlos Adames and WBA king Erislandy Lara, saying: “I’ve have two titles and two titles are missing. Any one of them, Adames or Lara, I’m ready any time. Send me a paper and I’ll sign it any time.”

Janibek was a deserved winner. Photo: Fox Sports

News Corp’s Peter Badel said he believed the fight should have been stopped in the second round.

“The refereeing — I don’t know what happened in the second round,” Badel said. “How did that go beyond two rounds?

“I don’t know about Mikhailovich’s corner, maybe I’m being a bit critical, but I would have stopped it early. I think he took too much punishment. That can be the type of fight that a fighter never really recovers from.”

Goodman said Janibek should have finished the fight in the second but he wound up in a “dogfight”.

However, post-fight, Janibek said he wanted to inflict pain on the New Zealander as well as get out some ring rust after almost 12 months out of the ring.

“I could have finished him in the second round, but I didn’t — I wanted to work a little bit,” Janibek said.

“He was talking a lot during the press conference and after the press conference. I just thought ‘I’m going to bring him pain’.

“Knocking him out in the second round would have been easy. I wore him down and, as you can see, he took a lot of punishment for what he did.”

Originally published as ‘Absolute chaos’: Wrong anthem, farcical scenes stun as Janibek KO's Mikhailovich