By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury and challenger Agit Kabayel are finishing up a deal to fight on December 5th in London, England, on BT Box Office in the UK and ESPN.
Mike Coppinger reporting the news on the Fury-Kabayel deal being finalized. Earlier on Wednesday, Fury’s promoter Frank Warren clarified that they have no interest in using Dillian Whyte as his opponent.
The timing of this fight for Fury is awful because it’s the last one before ‘The Gypsy King’ faces Anthony Joshua twice in 2021.
Kabayel, the wrong opponent for Fury
What Fury and his management should try to create interest for the unification match with Joshua by fighting a talented heavyweight that can make it competitive. Kabayel isn’t the right guy to accomplish that task. He’s going to spoil and make Fury look bad.
Fury should be fighting one of these heavyweights to get fans interested in his unification against Joshua next year:
- Filip Hrgovic
- Joseph Parker
- Dillian Whyte
- Deontay Wilder
- Andy Ruiz Jr
- Daniel Dubois
- Joe Joyce
- Michael Hunter
- Alexander Povetkin
- Oscar Rivas
They want Kabayel, who is not well known by boxing fans in the U.S, but if the fight is shown on regular ESPN, it’ll likely bring in good ratings.
WBC heavyweight champion Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs0 has decided to take an easy fight by facing Kabayel (20-0, 13 KOs), who tends to fight defensively, and he no real power. For a slow guy, Kabayel is slick. However, he’s not big, and he’s going to be an easy mark for Fury, but that’s why he was selected.
They don’t want Fury to lose before he gets his big payday against Joshua.
Fury vs. Kabayel on BT Box Office = poor choice
Interestingly, Fury’s management has chosen to put the fight with Kabayel on BT Box Office. Fury vs. Kabayel pay-per-view worthy fight, especially now during the pandemic.
It’s unclear what buy-rate they’re hoping the fight card will bring in on BT Box Office. If they have low expectations, then it won’t be so bad.
It’s a terrible fight to be selling on PPV because Kabayel isn’t well known, and the boxing fans that do know about hi aren’t impressed with what they’ve seen.
When you charge fans for a poor mismatch type of fight like the Fury vs. Agit Kabayel contest, you fail with the fans. They know a money-grab when they see one, and that’s clearly what this fight is.
It doesn’t belong on pay-per-view in Charles Brun’s view, and it’s going to do dreadful numbers. It’s a good thing that Top Rank isn’t planning on putting this mismatch on ESPN PPV in the U.S because that would be a disaster. It’s a fight that belongs on regular ESPN, and not ESPN+ or PPV.
Looking at Kabayel’s sparse record, I don’t see anyone recognizable and worth mentioning other than Dereck Chisora, who he beat when he was out of shape several years ago.
If Fury keeps facing soft opposition like Kabayel, Tom Schwarz, and Otto Wallin, he’s going to ruin the gains he’s made in the boxing world.