.png)
10 hours ago
2
“This guy is the professor,” Arslanbek Makhmudov says of Tyson Fury as he looks forward politely to their fight on Saturday night at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. There is none of the usual bluster and malice of heavyweight boxing as the huge Russian from Dagestan shows considerable respect for the former world champion who is making yet another comeback to the ring.
“Tyson Fury is the professor of mind and boxing,” Makhmudov continues in his functional but effective English. “A lot of boxing is mental and he is a master. But boxing is also spiritual. I am going to be strong, spiritual and smart. You can say this is a war between mental and spiritual and we’ll see who is more successful. Inshallah it is spiritual.”
The 6ft 5½in Makhmudov, who is expected to weigh in at about 270lb against Fury, will also bring real physicality and power to the ring. Nineteen of his 21 victories have ended in a stoppage and he can clearly hit hard enough to test Fury, who, for all his resilience and toughness, has been knocked down seven times in his professional career. Fury always gets up but he has not been quite the same fighter since Deontay Wilder knocked him down four times in two savage bouts.
Fury is normally keen to insult his opponents but, so far, he has echoed Makhmudov’s respectful tone. “I don’t know why but he has been very friendly,” the 36‑year‑old Makhmudov says of Fury. “I appreciate it because the young generation look at us as a good example. He is 38 [in August]. It’s not like we are 25. We are fathers and that’s why he agree with me – we can sell this fight without bad stuff.”
Makhmudov is amiable and cheerful when I ask what Fury still does best in the ring. “His box IQ is very high. When he need to change the fight he know how to do it. He showed it when he beat Wladimir Klitschko [to become world champion for the first time in 2015] and Wilder in some crazy fights. So this guy, he is a legend, one of the best heavyweights in history.”
Asked about his opponent’s vulnerabilities, Makhmudov again opts for diplomacy. “That’s why we have this fight – to find his weaknesses and then beat him.”
Makhmudov is just as positive when remembering his only other previous visit to England – for his dominant points victory over Dave Allen last October: “Sheffield was very nice, with very friendly people. I love England.”
But surely he felt a little lonely as almost everyone in the partisan crowd seemed to be cheering on Allen? “No. When I go in the ring I hear this crowd and I say to myself: ‘Listen, these 10,000 are against you. But if my God is with me they cannot do nothing to me.’ This time [against Fury] I will go with my God again.”
A 60,000 pro-Fury crowd is expected but Makhmudov remains sanguine. “There is nothing they can do when you understand this. If my God is with me then 60,000 don’t matter. It’s nothing. If God is with you it’s a real power and a beautiful power.”
Will he pray before walking to the ring? “I pray all the time and not just before the fight. I pray five times in the day and ask him for all the success. I don’t worry because his plan is always best.”
Makhmudov has not had an easy life. “I was born in the Soviet Union and this became the Russian Federation. But I am from Dagestan and I remember, as a kid, a hard time. There was war in Chechenya and I remember people taken to the cemetery. We had no money. My father was a bus driver. He work for one year but he had no salary because we had no government that works. My mother was a schoolteacher, and she also wasn’t receiving a salary. But after my parents make a pharmacy business our life became much better. It was a very happy life.”
The boxer and his family now live in Canada but does he think of himself as being Russian? “In the west, in Canada and the USA, they call it Russia. But we still see Dagestan. So I am Dagestani, of course. I’m always from Dagestan.”
Nine years ago, when he was 27, Makhmudov moved to Montreal. “Some managers and coaches invited me. I had other invitations to Germany, Japan and the USA. But I like Canada. It was still bad at the start because I had zero English and the culture was different. But you adapt and it was good I bring my wife and kids. Now my daughter is 11, my son is 10 and the other daughter is four. The kids go to school. They speak French.”
Makhmudov laughs in delight when celebrating his cosmopolitan children before becoming serious after he is asked if he will always live in Canada. “I don’t know. We will see. I have house here, I have car here, the kids’ school, a very good school, is here. Everything good is here. But of course my wife and kids miss Dagestan.”
He has lost two fights, but he offers an excuse for his defeat in December 2023 against Agit Kabayel: “In the fifth round I broke my hand in two places. I got operation after the fight. I didn’t realise that when it broke, I didn’t feel pain because I feel numb in my hand. I try [to] punch but my head said: ‘No punch.’”
Makhmudov, more surprisingly, also lost to Guido Vianello in August 2024 but he sounds philosophical when asked about that fight. “What happened? Many time[s] I was hit in my face. It was [swollen] and I couldn’t see. The ref stopped it. But it’s okay. They say everything happens for a reason. If I lose, this means I need to lose. I deserve that. I know I have to fix some stuff, improve some stuff, work more. There is no time to be sad.”
His family would like him to give up boxing but the big man is amused when I say they must have worried far more when they saw video footage of him fighting a bear. “It was in Russia. Moscow. Maybe one and [a] half year ago. I told my wife but my mother couldn’t understand. I said: ‘Listen, Mum, I have to go to Moscow as I am fighting a bear.’ My mother did not understand. She think I said I just go for meeting. But when she see the video she said: ‘Are you crazy? Why you do that? You will never see your kids again if you do this.’”
Does he often grapple with bears? “No. This is the only time. Not again.”
Makhmudov looks horrified when I ask if he enjoyed the surreal experience. “No, no. It was very terrible to be honest. One of my friends make me an offer [to fight the bear]. He said: ‘Do you want to make crazy stuff?’ I said: ‘OK, I cannot refuse.’ But I will never do it again. The bear tried to bite me and it was a good thing that never happened.”
Facing Fury, after fighting a bear, will seem simple in comparison. “Exactly,” Makhmudov says with a relieved smile. “I don’t know how I will beat [Fury] but of course I believe I will win. I invest a lot of my time [in training] and I believe this is a good fight for me. I will do everything to win, inshallah, so that’s why you cannot miss this fight.”
