I rate Makhmudov. Yes he's robotic but you can get away with it in the HW division as long as you have power and a good chin then it'll take you a long way.
Pure punchers like Makmudov will never convince me...technique Is important in boxing. The most sensational crashes in this sport involved pure punchers.
No doubt. Wilder has those elastic genes so he'll always have that power but as soon as his feet slow down and he gets even easier to hit, he'll be a KO disaster waiting to happen. He never learned the fundamentals. Makmudov at least is well schools and is constantly working on his craft. Would love to see him against Povetkin or Whyte.
I usually agree with Brighton but I'm going to defer this one time and say I think Makmudhov is the goods. Then again I also rate Joyce highly so a fight between the two would be very interesting. Mak is a bit cumbersome, as anyone that size would be, but like Joyce he's good at varying his speed to catch opponents out, and punches from a variety of angles with a shedton of power. He's also a really vicious SOB and looks to lay a real hurting on opponents, but is also surprisingly calm under fire and looks decent behind the jab (though I'd like to see him against a higher level of competition to really gauge him in this category). He was liable to getting outboxed in the WSB at times, but he also smashed up a number of decent fighters including Nistor (who KOed Joshua) so he's clearly not a hype job in my opinion. Stylistically he has some unorthodox but powerful tools at his disposal. Due to his height his chopping OH right is a vicious tool that he can slice through opponents' guards in close, and his quick uppercut can catch fighters out that are expecting an attack from another angle. He's also pretty adept at using his lead hand to maintain range, or manipulate fighters into his power punches, and he's pretty good at wrestling and generally manhandling guys that try to clinch with him. So yeah, I think he's pretty good and I think he's pick up a decent scalp this year situation permitting.
I wouldn't say he smashed up Nistor, yeah he stopped him but he was losing the fight but was on the brink of being stopped himself in the first round. One judge scored it a 10-7 he took such a pounding in the first round. He does have a good right hand, thrown from the shoulder, doesn't telegraph it noticeably and he has a good right uppercut. Yes he does seem to be a vicious SOB, the way he pushed his head into Nistor's and scarily stared at him with a vicious look in his eyes in one of the clinches when he was at that time losing badly showed a real mean streak, looked like he wanted to really hurt Nistor. But he doesn't have a jab, just paws out the left hand he strictly uses it to set up his power shots. His footwork is what makes him look cumbersome, he crosses his feet, is sometimes off balance after throwing, like when he drags his rear foot when throwing the right hand, which often leaves him squared up. His foot work honestly sucks, nobody will have trouble getting to him, he's far too easy to be hit and as the Nistor fight showed can definitely be hurt as does his stoppage loss to Omarov. Maybe he's one of those guys who looks better than he is at first glance and has those intangible qualities that can overcome the flaws in his game but he'll need to prove it by stepping up. He's an exciting addition to the heavyweight division, but not sure how far he can go.