{"id":625782,"date":"2026-04-23T13:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625782\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T13:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:29:07","slug":"arslanbek-makhmudov-targets-deontay-wilder-if-anthony-joshua-declines-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625782\/","title":{"rendered":"Arslanbek Makhmudov Targets Deontay Wilder if Anthony Joshua Declines Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russian heavyweight contender Arslanbek Makhmudov has offered himself for a showdown with American knockout artist Deontay Wilder. That\u2019s if Anthony Joshua continues to break the promise of the pair having a fight since last October.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to fight Wilder,\u201d Makhmudov\u00a0stated\u00a0exclusively\u00a0in a video-call with\u00a0Boxing Social.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Makhmudov (21-3, 19 KOs) took on Tyson Fury in his second straight fight on British soil, following a successful campaign outpointing David Allen in Sheffield last October. The Russian would lose a comfortable unanimous-decision to Fury earlier this month, but has his eyes set on two particular names in the heavyweight division.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I can\u2019t fight Joshua then I want to fight Wilder,\u201d Makhmudov explained. \u201cI only have two goals. Wilder or Joshua. I don\u2019t want any other fight, It\u2019s Joshua or Wilder.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wilder (45-4-1, 43 KOs) put some much needed impetus into his career with a split-decision victory over multiple world title challenger Derek Chisora<\/a> at the O2 Arena in London on April 4.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe Chisora would be a good option if they\u00a0gave\u00a0me a good offer,\u201d Makhmudov said in response to a backup plan,\u00a0knowing full well he could be avoided with a slew of heavyweight fights being discussed. \u201cI thought it was a good fight against Chisora. It was a bit of war with some\u00a0exciting\u00a0moments, but Wilder was much better for me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Makhmudov\u2019s ambitions could be interrupted if Joshua, who is being aggressively chased by Fury, decides to divert his attention to another much discussed and highly lucrative matchup with the American former WBC champion<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Joshua takes the Wilder fight, it is a mistake because Fury has already knocked him out two times,\u201d Makhmudov expressed with a slightly sinister laugh. \u201cBut Fury could\u00a0not knock me out in 12\u00a0rounds,\u00a0he\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0even close to knocking me out. So, if Joshua goes to Wilder instead\u00a0of\u00a0me, he is trying to take the\u00a0easy way\u00a0out. You understand?\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0logical.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old Russian was drafted in to take on Fury following a 16 month hiatus from action<\/a>. The former two-time world champion, who was reeling off back-to-back defeats to Usyk, chose Makhmuodv as his comeback opponent following a successful trip to England where he showed his pedigree in comfortably defeating Allen on away soil.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was in the ring [with Fury] I always thought I could win,\u201d Makhmudov explained. \u201cI had a couple of successful\u00a0rounds and\u00a0did\u00a0not that\u00a0bad in some\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0other rounds. But Fury is a very smart guy, his boxing IQ is\u00a0very high. I\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0really want to say this, but one month before the fight I got covid, and I had the covid for one week. The whole week I was in bed and not training or\u00a0nothing. To be honest, I remember saying to my coach that I was tired after the first six rounds. I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0want to make excuses, but my energy was\u00a0very low.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously\u00a0I understand this guy, that\u00a0he is\u00a0very good\u00a0on his feet and very smart. So, my goal was to improve towards the end of the fight in the later rounds, but I did the opposite. Maybe because my energy\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0so good, I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0know.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Makhmudov has made it clear in a recent video posted on social media<\/a> that his first\u00a0option\u00a0is to get his night with Joshua in November\u00a0after \u201cthree fights in ten months.\u201d\u00a0However, with the heavyweight division more active and more lucrative than ever before, Wilder has become a fixture in his mind. His lopsided decision loss to Fury did little to launch him into title contention, but he will\u00a0likely get\u00a0another shot at one of the big names in the money-drenched weight-class.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing surprised me\u00a0about Fury\u00a0because I know he is very good,\u201d\u00a0Makhmuodv\u00a0added. \u201cBut this\u00a0guy said he would knock me out in the sixth or seventh round. Everyone expected him to knock me out in the early rounds, but it\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0happen. To be honest I\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0find him too powerful and he\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0dominate me the\u00a0way he\u00a0wanted to, although he dominated by winning most of the rounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve\u00a0never faced a guy as experienced\u00a0as\u00a0him\u00a0before.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0a real professional. When you are in the ring with him,\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0very smart. I know boxing, I have Russian boxing schooling,\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0why I know a few things what\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0doing, but\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0very, very good.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian heavyweight contender Arslanbek Makhmudov has offered himself for a showdown with American knockout artist Deontay Wilder. That\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[8075,23811,64,63,802,60999,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-625782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-anthony-joshua","9":"tag-arslanbek-makhmudov","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-boxing","13":"tag-deontay-wilder","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}