{"id":857251,"date":"2026-08-16T11:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T11:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/857251\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T11:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T11:46:09","slug":"heavyweight-champion-murat-gassiev-says-one-fight-is-now-inevitable-of-course-were-interested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/857251\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavyweight champion Murat Gassiev says one fight is now &#8216;inevitable&#8217;: &#8220;Of course we&#8217;re interested&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With Moses Itauma fighting Filip Hrgovic for the vacant IBF strap on August 29, <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/murat-gassiev\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Murat Gassiev<\/a> suspects his next heavyweight title defence is practically set in stone.<\/p>\n<p>The Russian was elevated from \u2018Regular\u2019 to full WBA champion ahead of his last outing, a routine sixth-round stoppage of Peter Kadiru in July.<\/p>\n<p>This was because <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/usyk-on-the-reason-for-vacating-titles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Oleksandr Usyk had decided to vacate his heavyweight belts<\/a>, affording Gassiev an upgrade following his title-winning knockout of Kubrat Pulev last December.<\/p>\n<p>Itauma, meanwhile, is gearing up for an IBF world title challenge at London\u2019s O2 Arena, effectively forgoing his WBA mandatory position.<\/p>\n<p>This therefore means that Jarrell Miller, the sanctioning body\u2019s next highest-ranked heavyweight, is likely to become the leading contender for Gassiev\u2019s black and gold strap.<\/p>\n<p>Even now, \u2018Big Baby\u2019 is perhaps best known for failing multiple doping tests, most notably ahead of his cancelled clash with Anthony Joshua in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, the American has hardly set the world alight but did hold Andy Ruiz Jr to a 12-round draw in 2024, when many felt he deserved to emerge victorious.<\/p>\n<p>Now coming off <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/boxing\/story\/_\/id\/48597075\/jarrell-miller-bests-lenier-pero-decision-toe-toe-slugfest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">a unanimous decision triumph over Lenier Pero in April<\/a>, Miller is set to secure his first world title shot before long.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/boxing\/news\/12040\/13571708\/jarrell-miller-could-receive-world-heavyweight-title-fight-as-murat-gassiev-is-interested-in-fighting-the-american\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sky Sports<\/a>, Gassiev even admitted to having already received an offer from Team Miller and Eddie Hearn\u2019s Matchroom Boxing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, if there is an offer regarding Jarrell Miller. We are of course interested.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFurthermore, if Moses Itauma decides to pursue the IBF route [which he has], Jarrell Miller will become an official contender for my WBA title, making the fight inevitable for me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are also highly interested in a fight with Agit Kabayel. If a concrete agreement is reached and this fight begins to materialise, I would gladly sign up for a unification bout.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like Gassiev, Kabayel was upgraded to full champion after claiming his WBC \u2018interim\u2019 title with a sixth-round stoppage of Zhilei Zhang in February 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Moses Itauma fighting Filip Hrgovic for the vacant IBF strap on August 29, Murat Gassiev suspects his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-857251","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\/857251","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=857251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}