The surprise wasn’t that Tyson Fury is returning to the boxing ring April 11. It’s that his comeback bout versus Arslanbek Makhmudoz will be shown by Netflix.
And the logical conclusion to draw from that is that Fury is headed to that long-awaited showdown with fellow countryman and two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Netflix, as well.
“This is a foregone conclusion that A.J. is going to fight. … I would assume the deal is already done,” ProBoxTV analyst Chris Algieri said on Wednesday’s edition of “BoxingScene Today.”
Joshua, of course, is still emotionally reeling from the car crash deaths of his close friends Sina Ghami and “Latz” Ayodele in Nigeria in December, in a vehicle Joshua occupied.
Joshua promoter Eddie Hearn told BoxingScene on Saturday that he recently visited with the fighter and that he’s recovering physically.
“Emotionally and spiritually, he’s recovering. Is he going to fight again? It hasn’t even been discussed. It’s one of those [where] you leave him to do what he needs to do … to mourn, to look over the families,” Hearn said. “And then – if the time comes – to say, ‘I’m ready,’ and he’ll go back to his training camp.
“He trains every day. My gut feeling is he’ll return to the ring. We’re giving him the space he needs.”
Joshua, 29-4 (26 KOs), last fought December 19, knocking out Jake Paul on a widely viewed Netflix card, furthering the theory that a date with Fury, 34-2-1 (24 KOs), looms on the streaming giant, which also staged September’s Terence Crawford-Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight.
A match between the world champions from the UK has long captured the imagination of fight fans after Fury ended Wladimir Klitschko’s reign in 2015 and Joshua stopped Klitschko two years later.
Both have lost twice to Oleksandr Usyk, but their contrasting personalities and Fury’s verbal jousts have kept the rivalry bubbling.
“BoxingScene Today” analyst and former welterweight titleholder Paulie Malignaggi said Fury’s ability to land a tune-up bout on Netflix speaks well to his global popularity after a family documentary was also placed on Netflix.
“Netflix is just about the business. … [This] shows how Fury draws and resonates,” Malignaggi said. “Boxing is a niche sport in a way, but it has more star power than any other sport. Fury is one of those guys.
“So the comeback is not huge news, but Netflix is a huge deal.”
Canadian-based Russian Makhmudov, 21-2 (19 KOs), is 36 and has been defeated by Guido Vianello and Agit Kabayel. He stands 6ft 5ins and “looks like a movie villain,” Malignaggi said.
Malignaggi and Algieri credited Jake Paul for bringing Netflix to boxing with his Mike Tyson fight, and said Fury’s bout in the UK pitting “big monster heavyweights” is intriguing, but “none of this happens without Jake Paul.”
Makhmudov has power, but he fights “too tight and doesn’t take good shots to the body,” Algieri said.
“This is a path to A.J. That’s all.”
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
