By Chris Williams: WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury could be facing bottom #15 WBC fringe contender Agit Kabayel on December 5th in his next fight in the UK. Dan Rafael reports that the 28-year-old Kabayel (20-0, 113 KOs) is the leading candidate to get the fight against Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) on December 5th.
Kabayel is a German fighter co-promoted by Top Rank, the same promotional company that Fury is signed with. Agit holds the EBU heavyweight title, and he owns a win over British fighter Dereck Chisora, who is popular in the UK despite a journeyman.
Kabayel took advantage of Chisora being out of shape for their fight in 2017 and won an ugly decision. An in-shape Chisora likely would have done easy work of the light-hitting Kabayel.
Kabayel promoted by Top Rank
The best thing that Kabayel has going for him is his unbeaten 20-0 record. Top Rank will market the fight by telling the boxing public that Fury is facing an unbeaten heavyweight in Kabayel. What they’ll leave out is Kabayel’s resume is filled with weak obscure opposition, apart from his win over an out of shape Chisora.
Chisora is the only recognizable name on Kabayel’s nine-year pro resume. The next best guy that Kabayel has faced is Andriy Rudenko, a fighter that he beat by a 12 round unanimous decision last year in March 2019.
Kabayel has very little power, and he’s what you call a ‘runner’ type of heavyweight. For the fans that remember Chris Byrd, he’s that type of a heavyweight. A defensive fighter with no power, slow feet, but who will flee when facing guys with more power.
The casual boxing fan in the U.S likely has never heard of Kabayel, but that was the same situation as Fury’s fights against Tom Schwarz and Otto Wallin. It isn’t very likely that Top
Rank is expecting much interest from U.S fans for Fury’s fight.
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
If Top Rank, sticking Kabayel in there with Fury makes sense because it’s win-win for them because they’ll have only their own hands on the gearshift of the promotion. In other words, Fury vs. Kabayel fight is what you call an ‘In-house’ promotion involving just Top Rank with no sharing with an outside promoter.
Agit has fought pedestrian level opposition
The bad news is, Kabayel is a pedestrian-level heavyweight with no power, slow hands, and a dull style of fighting. There will be no potential of Fury being stretched in the 12th round with a referee giving him a count while he’s out cold.
With a big money fight just over the horizon in 2021 between Fury and IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, Top Rank might not want to chance-it by putting Fury in with a good fighter with power and talent that could take advantage of his chin issues.
The logical choice for Fury to fight on December 5th would be #8 WBC Oscar ‘Kaboom’ Rivas (26-1, 18 KOs), who can punch and has excellent defensive skills. Top Rank promotes Rivas as well, but it’s not entirely surprising why they’re not considering him for his December date.
Unlike Kabayel, Rivas is dangerous, and he could hurt Fury if he lands one of his shots cleanly. Rivas gave Dillian Whyte all he could handle in losing a 12 round decision in a WBC title eliminator in July 2019 in London, England.
He knocked Whyte down with an uppercut in the ninth round and had him hurt with a body shot in the 12th round. That was an instant where the referee stopped the action and gave Whyte time to recover from a body shot.
The referee mistakenly thought it was a low blow, but it turned out to be a body shot. Who knows what would have happened if the referee didn’t give Whyte the time out?
Using Kabayel as Fury’s opponent will both protect him from harm, and also give him a chance to showcase his talent against a non-threat. It’ll be another showcase fight for Fury like his match Tom Schwarz.
Better choices for Fury than Kabayel
Besides Rivas, Top Rank could have chosen one of these fighters for Fury to face:
- Otto Wallin
- Andy Ruiz Jr
- Michael Hunter
- Luis Ortiz
It would look a lot better for Fury to face a top ten counter in the World Boxing Council’s rankings rather than reaching for rock bottom Kabayel at #15 with the WBC. Hunter is ranked #10 with the WBC, and Rivas at #8. Filip Hrgovic would be an excellent opponent as well at #9.
There are a lot of good heavyweights that should be considered for Fury’s December 5th fight. If Fury is as good as he’s been saying he is, then should have no qualms about taking on the likes of Hunter, Ruiz Jr, Ortiz, Hrgovic, or Rivas.
Perhaps Fury would take on one of those guys if he were the one that is calling the shots in selecting his next opponent, but this is a promotional thing. If Top Rank feels that it’s important to give Kabayel the fight, then that’s who it’ll be. If Fury was more assertive, he could obviously veto the choice of Kabyel as his opponent, but that’s not the way he is.
The Gypsy King has been letting Top Rank pick his opposition since he signed with them. Hence, we’ve seen him face Wallin and Schwarz. Putting Fury in with Wilder was the one good thing Top Rank has done with him since they signed him, but he was also very lucky he didn’t get knocked out in his first fight with the Bronze Bomber.
Joshua would never make the same choice
If Anthony Joshua was the one that was signed to fight Kabayel, he would receive withering fire from the critics on social media, who would point out the obvious that he’s fighting a bottom dweller. Joshua couldn’t get away with fighting Kabayel, and wouldn’t dare make that move.
His promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing would know better not than present a poor opponent like Kabayel to Sky Sports for a pay-per-view to peddle to the British public. Hearn would stoop to that level. There would be too much negative feedback from boxing fans for a weak move like that by Hearn.
Fury was supposed to fight Wilder next, but he revealed earlier today that he’s moving on because he won’t be ready to fight in December.
