{"id":793866,"date":"2026-07-11T16:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T16:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/793866\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T16:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T16:35:08","slug":"former-heavyweight-champion-hasim-rahman-predicts-deontay-wilder-vs-anthony-joshua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/793866\/","title":{"rendered":"Former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman predicts Deontay Wilder vs Anthony Joshua"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman has revealed who he would favour in a clash between Anthony Joshua<\/a> and Deontay Wilder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the pair have seemingly gone their separate ways, their matchup was once considered one of the biggest fights that could be made in boxing.<\/p>\n

This was back when Wilder held the WBC title, knocking out the likes of Luis Ortiz and Bermane Stiverne, while Joshua reigned as the unified heavyweight champion.<\/p>\n

Their undisputed showdown never materialised, however, as Wilder instead fought Tyson Fury<\/a> and battled to a dramatic two-knockdown draw in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u2018AJ\u2019, meanwhile, ended up suffering a shock defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019, losing his titles via a stunning seventh-round stoppage at Madison Square Garden, New York.<\/p>\n

Joshua and Wilder were then supposed to lock horns after their respective contests against Otto Wallin and Joseph Parker<\/a> in 2023, only for \u2018The Bronze Bomber\u2019 to endure a punishing unanimous decision loss.<\/p>\n

Since then, Wilder, in particular, has seemed a shadow of his former self, even while edging a split decision against Derek Chisora in April.<\/p>\n

It is for this reason that Rahman, who is best known for defeating Lennox Lewis<\/a>, has told Sean Zittel<\/a> that he would favour Joshua at this stage in their careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought if they fought three times, it would be a different winner every time \u2013 it might be a knockout; it might be a decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still think that way. But I would probably favour Anthony at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Wilder is negotiating an encounter with Oleksandr Usyk<\/a>, Joshua has already agreed to face Fury later this year, but must first come through his assignment against Kristian Prenga in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on July 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman has revealed who he would favour in a clash between Anthony Joshua and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-793866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793866","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=793866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}