Carl Froch has given his view on what might happen if Anthony Joshua and Arslanbek Makhmudov come to blows in the ring.
Joshua is a former two-time unified world heavyweight champion who has not fought in more than a year. Last time out, he was destroyed inside five rounds by Daniel Dubois as they battled it out for the IBF world title.
Before that, he had claimed a few wins after losing back-to-back fights to Oleksandr Usyk and has more recently been recovering from elbow surgery.
In that time, Makhmudov has become a solid contender and earlier in October he outpointed Dave Allen over 12 rounds. It was a fun contest with plenty of pressure from Allen throughout, though Makhmudov used his size and reach advantages well to keep the ‘White Rhino’ at the end of stiff jabs and solid right hands.
One man who was impressed by the performance of Makhmudov was former super-middleweight world champion Froch, and speaking on Froch on Fighting, ‘The Cobra’ sent a warning to Joshua and suggested he could have a hard night against the Russian.
“Just a quick word on Makhmudov, he’s carried himself well all week, put in a performance against Dave Allen and stuck it on AJ’ Actually I think they’ve DM’d each other, and AJ said they’ll fight.
“AJ wants to be careful because he can punch a bit so if he sticks it on AJ who knows. I would like to think someone of AJ’s experience can do the business but you just never know.”
As of yet, Joshua has no solid date for his ring return, and no opponent has been lined up. His promoter Eddie Hearn has said before it will likely be a top 20 heavyweight and Makhmudov fits the bill so would represent a good challenge at this stage.
