Anthony Joshua is in search for a July opponent in order to best prepare him for a proposed showdown with Tyson Fury in November.
Fury returned to the heavyweight scene after a 16-month layoff, outboxing Russian powerhouse Arslanbek Makhmudov in a decision win at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to score a first victory since 2023.
In the aftermath, ‘The Gypsy King’ piled pressure onto ‘AJ’, demanding that he signs to fight him next, hoping to disrupt Joshua’s plans for an outing against an alternate foe this summer.
However, the Watford-born operator refused to dance to Fury’s tune and seems poised to stick to his original plan – fight in a ‘warm-up’ in three months’ time before a long-awaited meeting with ‘The Gypsy King’ towards the end of 2026.
As a result, there are a host of heavyweights hoping to secure a lucrative affair with Joshua, whose only fight since a devastating 2024 defeat to Daniel Dubois came against YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul last December.
That includes Makhmudov, who recently took to Instagram to display a fight poster for his potential scrap with Joshua, after they discussed fighting one another late last year. ‘The Lion’ also included a video message for the Brit, though his timeline doesn’t quite add up.
“Hey Joshua, what’s up man? I heard about you looking for an opportunity to fight in November in Riyadh. Listen, I hope you don’t forget the words you give me. Man words. I wait for you, bro. Let me know.”
Makhmudov is one of few men in the division that can somewhat replicate the size of Fury, standing at almost 6’6”, just three inches short of Fury’s reported 6’9” frame.
More importantly, however, the fight would offer fans, and Joshua himself, a measuring stick of how much both he and Fury have left. If Joshua could do what Fury couldn’t and stop the Russian inside the distance, he would move forward with confidence and armed with a great narrative for what may be the defining fight of his career. In fact, Fury himself even suggested the match-up.
The only sticking point would be Makhmudov’s turnaround time, having said that he now wants to rest before another training camp, perhaps ruling himself out of another big money fight and an opportunity to spoil some mammoth plans.