Early career Alimkhanuly made his professional debut on 29 October 2016 against
Milton Núñez, a former opponent of Alimkhanuly's fellow countryman
Gennady Golovkin, on 29 October 2016 in his home city of
Almaty,
Kazakhstan. He won the bout via first-round technical knockout. From 2016 to 2019, Alimkhanuly amassed a record of 8–0. Ahead of his fight with Issah Samir on 21 March 2020, the world was struck with
COVID-19. Alimkhanuly's fight was canceled, but Alimkhanuly asserted that there were more pressing concerns: "We just lost the fight date, someone lost the family. It’s not easy. We will fight when everything calms down but nobody will not return them to their family. I wish all patients a quick recovery.” In his toughest test yet, Alimkhanuly faced former WBA (Regular) champion
Rob Brant as the co-featured bout to
Vasiliy Lomachenko vs. Masayoshi Nakatani on 26 June 2021 in
Paradise, Nevada. He knocked Brant down in the sixth round en route to an eighth-round
corner retirement victory. Alimkhanuly faced the former two-time world middleweight champion
Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam on 20 November 2021, on the
Terence Crawford vs. Shawn Porter undercard. He won the fight by an eight-round technical knockout. Alimkhanuly was ahead on the scorecards at the time of the stoppage (with scores of 70–62, 70–62 and 70–61) and had knocked N'Jikam down in the third round.
WBO middleweight champion Alimkhanuly vs. Dignum On 30 November 2021, the
WBO ordered their middleweight champion
Demetrius Andrade to make a mandatory title defense against Alimkhanuly. Three months later, on 21 March 2022, the sanctioning body allowed Andrade to move up in weight and face
Zach Parker for the interim
super middleweight title instead, while allowing him to keep the middleweight championship as well. Andrade later withdrew from the fight, as he suffered a right shoulder injury during training camp. As such, Alimkhanuly faced the undefeated
Danny Dignum for the vacant
WBO interim middleweight title on 21 May 2022, in the main event of an
ESPN broadcast card, which took place at the Resorts World Event Center in
Las Vegas, Nevada. He made quick work of his opponent, stopping Dignum with an uppercut near the end of the second round. Alimkhanuly landed 21 of 33 power punches and 34 of 94 overall, while Dignum managed to land only 6 out of 45 total punches. On 20 July 2022, the WBO once again ordered Andrade to defend his title against Alimkhanuly, giving the pair 30 days to come to terms. Andrade officially vacated his middleweight title on 30 August, and Alimkhanuly was promoted to the WBO Champion that same day.
Alimkhanuly vs. Bentley On 22 September 2022, it was revealed that Alimkhanuly would make a voluntary title defense against the 14th-ranked
WBO middleweight contender
Denzel Bentley. The title bout was booked as the headliner of an
ESPN+ broadcast card, which took place at the Palms Casino Resort in
Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 12, 2022. Alimkhanuly retained his title by unanimous decision, with two judges scoring the bout 116–112 in his favor, while the third judge awarded him a wider scorecard of 118–110. He outlanded Bentley 187 to 159 in total punches and 137 to 125 in power punches, landing 35% of all the strikes he threw, compared to Bentley's 25.9%.
Alimkhanuly vs. Butler On 20 November 2022, the
WBO formally ordered Alimkhanuly to make a mandatory title defense against the former
junior middleweight champion
Jaime Munguia. On 2 December, it was revealed that Munguia's team had declined to proceed with the mandatory title fight. On 22 February 2023, Alimkhanuly was ordered to make a mandatory title defense against the former WBO
light-middleweight champion
Liam Smith. As Smith was contractually obligated to face
Chris Eubank Jr in an
immediate rematch, Alimkhanuly instead made his second title defense against the sixth-ranked WBO middleweight contender Steven Butler on 13 May 2023. He won the fight by a second-round knockout.
Unified middleweight champion Alimkhanuly vs. Gualtieri Alimkhanuly faced the
IBF middleweight titleholder Vincenzo Gualtieri in a championship unification bout on 14 October 2023, at the Fort Bend County Epicenter in
Rosenberg, Texas. Prior to the fight, Alimkhanuly began training with
Brian Viloria, having previously trained under
Buddy McGirt. In the fifth round, he dazed Gualtieri with a hard left uppercut that he recovered from; after dazing Gualtieri again with a left uppercut in the sixth round, the referee stopped the fight and awarded Alimkhanuly the victory by TKO. With this victory, he became the second boxer from Kazakhstan to earn the unified middleweight championship.
Alimkhanuly vs. Mikhailovich Alimkhanuly was scheduled to face
Andrei Mikhailovich on 13 July 2024, in Las Vegas, but the bout fell off after he withdrew due to weight cutting issue. On 18 September 2024, it was announced that the fight was rescheduled for 4 October 2024 in Sydney, Australia with the IBF middleweight title on the line. Alimkhanuly won the fight by TKO in the ninth round.
Alimkhanuly vs. Ngamissengue Alimkhanuly defended his unified IBF and WBO middleweight titles against
Anauel Ngamissengue at
Barys Arena in
Astana, Kazakhstan on 5 April 2025. He won by stoppage in the fifth round.
Failed Drug Test and Cancelled Bout With Lara Holding the unified IBF and WBO middleweight titles, Alimkhanuly was scheduled to face WBA middleweight champion
Erislandy Lara for the unified titles, at
Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas, on 6 December 2025. On 2 December 2025, it was announced that Alimkhanuly failed a VADA anti-doping test, and was replaced by Johan Gonzalez. On 10 March 2026, Alimkhanuly was stripped of his IBF middleweight title. ==Personal life==