Unified middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly keeps smashing the second-rate opposition that he's served.

The Ring's No. 1 rated 160-pound fighter in the world comfortably defended his WBO and IBF titles against Anauel Ngamissengue with a devastating fifth-round stoppage win in a homecoming fight Saturday in front of over 10,000 fans at the Barys Arena in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Alimkhanuly (17-0, 12 KOs) and Ngamissengue (14-1, 9 KOs) once competed in the same bracket of the 2016 Rio Olympics but the Kazakh would prove from the onset that their skills and careers are clearly on different levels.

The power-punching southpaw Alimkhanuly dropped Ngamissengue in the waning seconds of the first round by landing back-to-back overhand lefts, as Ngamissengue was saved by the bell from absorbing further damage.

With nearly 10 seconds to go in the third, Alimkhanuly wobbled Ngamissengue again with a check right hook, but he didn’t have enough time to add to the damage.

Ngamissengue kept marching forward and went toe-to-toe with Alimkhanuly but was consistently getting picked apart. Determination finally deteriorated by the fifth when Alimkhanuly rocked Ngamissengue with two head-snapping left hooks. Ngamissengue fell back and collapsed in the ropes but immediately got up only to see the referee wave off the fight.

Ngamissengue, 29, an obscure Congolese contender based in France, had never been matched in a 12-rounder before and was coming off a six-rounder against an opponent who had a 12-32-2 record. Ngamissengue's previous opponents had a combined record of 126-211-22 and the lack of world-level experience was evident against Alimkhanuly.

Alimkhanuly, 32, came in the contest as a near -650 betting favorite, and even those odds appeared low for the Zhilandy native. Alimkhanuly has now knocked out 10 out of his last 11 opponents and four in a row.

Alimkhanuly's reign as a champion started in 2022 and has featured wins against Danny Dignum, Denzel Bentley, Steven Butler, Vincenzo Gualtieri, and Andrei Mikhailovich. The 160-pound division has long been known as one of the sport's glamour weight classes but the current crop of talent is nowhere near the level that Alimkhanuly's countryman Gennadiy Golovkin dominated before handing the reins over.

Alimkhanuly has called for title unification fights against WBC champion Carlos Adames and WBA title holder Erislandy Lara and even a fight versus Canelo Alvarez but those overtures have been left unanswered.