By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury has made his choice in selecting little known former EBU heavyweight champion Agit Kabayel for his next fight on December 5th after walking away from a massive-money trilogy fight against dangerous KO artist Deontay Wilder.
Fury could have made a fortune fighting Wilder a third time, but he chose to walk away from the risky fight after the contract expired. Wilder isn’t too happy about it, and he’s saying that there’s going to be a lawsuit if he doesn’t get the fight.
According to Fury’s promoter Frank Warren, a contract has already been sent to the 28-year-old Kabayel, and they’re giving the German fighter just 24 hours to sign it; otherwise, they’re moving on.
The other fighter that was previously mentioned as being in the running for Fury’s voluntary defense of his WBC belt on December 5th was 39-year-old Carlos Takam.
Unfortunately, Takam, 6’2″, was deemed too short to prepare Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) for his unification fight against 6’6″ IBF/WBA/WBO champion Anthony Joshua, according to The Sun. Kabayel, 6’3″, is a little taller than Takam, but with not much power and a reputation as being a runner, who spoils his way to victories.
For the fans that saw Kabayel’s gawdawful win over an out of shape Dereck Chisora in 2017, they’ll have already seen the German fighter’s potential for spoiling and making his fights very boring to watch.
“We’re giving the guy we want to fight, which is Kabayel, we’re giving him 24 hours now to sign the contract or we’re going to move on,” said Fury’s promoter Frank Warren to Talk Sport.
“He’s undefeated and has a win on his record over Derek Chisora. He [was] the European champion and he’s ranked by the WBC. That’s who’s sitting at the moment on a contract and we’re waiting,” said Warren.
If Kabayel signs his John Hancock on the dotted line of the contract sent out, he could face the 32-year-old Fury at Royal Albert Hall in London, England.
The venue doesn’t matter that much to the average boxing fan. They want to see a good fight involving Fury, but the light-hitting Kabayel isn’t likely to fulfill that need.
If you were to pick the ideal opponent to assist Fury in getting ready for a fight against Joshua, Kabayel would be the last guy you’d select.
Kabayel’s fighting style and power is NOTHING like Joshua. Indeed, Kabayel’s fighting style is more like some of the heavyweights from the past like Chris Byrd and Jimmy Young, but much more mobile than those former fighters.
What was weird about Kabayel is how he regressed with his career after beating Chisora in 2017. After that victory, Kabayel should have continued facing top tier heavyweights to work his way to a world title shot. Rather than do that, Kabayel slammed his career into reverse mode and fought these three soft opponents:
- Miljan Rovcanin
- Andriy Rudenko
- Evgenios Lazaridis
Those fights ate up the last two years of Kabayel’s career, with him fighting them between 2018 and 2020. What a waste, eh?
It also tells you a lot about Fury with his mind because he’s interested in fighting a heavyweight like Kabayel rather than a talented one like Michael Hunter or a much bigger-paying trilogy match against Deontay Wilder.
“He’s got about 24 hours now to make his mind up to sign it and send it back or we’ll move on. He’s the fight, subject to the contract being signed,” said Warren about Kabayel.
Some fans believe Fury doesn’t want to take any risks and lose to Wilder or Hunter, and then mess up his payday against Anthony Joshua. So instead of Fury risking his hide against Wilder or Hunter, he’s chosen the light-hitter Kabayel, who he would have no worries about beating.
The hardest thing that Fury will need to deal with against Kabayel is trying to chase him down to land shots. Kabayel is one of those peck and run type of heavyweights, and he’s not going to stand there and have a traditional fight against Fury the way that Wilder would.