Tyson Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) could be making his next defense of his WBC heavyweight title against Agit Kabayel (20-0, 13 KOs) on December 5th in the UK.
Dan Rafael is first on the news of the Fury-Kabayel possible fight. Top Rank promotes the 28-year-old German fighter Kabayel, making it an easy fight for them to put together between him and Fury.
Top Rank has other heavyweights in their stable that would be better suited to be challenging Fury for a world title.
Kabayel holds the bottom ranking at #15 with the World Boxing Council, making him eligible for Fury to defend his WBC title against him. Obviously, there are more talented heavyweights than Kabayel in the WBC’s rankings, but there’s more risk for Fury.
For the fans that haven’t seen Kabayel fight before, he’s kind of like a weaker version of Chris Arreola, but with better footwork and defense. If you take away Arreola’s power and add slickness, you get Kabayel. With that said, Arreola would likely destroy a limited fighter like Kabayel. It’s doubtful the German fighter would ever mix it up with Arreola because he still has a lot left in the tank at 39.
It appears that Top Rank is going to play at safe by matching Fury with an easy mark, and hope that fans in the UK and U.S don’t mind.
There’s too much money on the line for Fury to risk him against a good heavyweight in December. Fury is scheduled for two fights against Anthony Joshua in 2021, and those match-ups will bring in a lot of dough to Top Rank.
That would disappear in an instant if Fury were to face a quality heavyweight on December 5th and lose. Therefore, Kabayel looks like he’s going to be the guy for Fury to face for a sure-thing win.
Fury needs an opponent after his hopes for a trilogy match against Deontay Wilder fell apart because ‘The Bronze Bomber’ won’t be ready by that time to face him. Tyson didn’t want to miss out on fighting in 2020, so he decided to walk away and find someone else to fight.
Top Rank will be reaching for one of their own heavyweights in 28-year-old Kabayel, who holds a career-best win over Dereck Chisora in 2017. It’s still not for certain that Fury will face Kabayel
Kabayel holds the European Boxing Union heavyweight title, which is a meaningless title for Fury, but some fans will be impressed by that.
At first glance, Kabayel’s 20-0 record is impressive to the eye. But when you look at the guys that he’s actually beaten, it’s painfully obvious that he has a padded record from top to bottom. As I mentioned, Kabayel did beat Chisora in 2017, but that contest was the perfect storm for Dereck.
He was out of shape, fighting in an alien environment, and not ready to chase Kabayel around for 12 rounds. If you take those two fighters and put them in the ring now, Chisora would likely win easily. Kabayel has no power to speak of, and it would be too easy for Delboy.
Kabayel’s last 10 opponents:
- Evgenios Lazaridis
- Andriy Rudenko
- Christian Lewandowski
- Lawrence Tauasa
- Miljan Rovcanin
- Dereck Chisora
- Herve Hubeaux
- Shalva Jomardashvili
- Maksym Pedyura
- Artsiom Charniakevich
As you can see for yourself, Kabayel hasn’t exactly been setting the world on fire in taking on elite-level heavyweights, has he? Just a lot of obscure heavyweights that didn’t belong inside the same ring with him.
It’s hard to know how good Kabayel is because the only guy that’s worth mentioning on his resume is Chisora, and he spent the entire fight running from him in a gawdawful match. It was one of those matches where you forget the fight immediately after.
It’s jarring that Fury would actually face a heavyweight like Kabayel rather than someone talented like Michael Hunter, Oscar Rivas, or one of the top 10 guys like Andy Ruiz Jr.
Per source, Germany’s Agit Kabayel (20-0, 13 KOs), the former European heavyweight champion, is a leading candidate to be Tyson Fury’s challenger should a fight Dec. 5 in the UK take place. Kabayel is co-promoted by Top Rank, as is Fury & is ranked in the WBC’s top 15. #boxing
— Dan Rafael (@DanRafael1) October 12, 2020