Who do you rank higher currently - Parker or Kabayel?

Parker.

 

While I think both men should be the next 2 fights for Usyk, I believe Kabayel deserves it more than Parker.

Let's take a look at the last 3 performances:

Parker vs Wilder - Parker was the huge underdog in this fight, when everyone expected Wilder to be still fighting at a top level. Parker did great in the fight, but Wilder was nowhere near the level of his prime. He showed that later by losing to Zhang and in his recent lackluster performance against Herndon.

Parker vs Zhang - Again Parker was the underdog, and big Zhang (one of my favorite fighters) underestimated him big time. While Parker did a good job, Zhang was able to drop him twice. The scorecards were close, despite the fact that Zhang barely threw a punch from round nine on.

Parker vs Bakole - Not Parkers fault to face Bakole, often viewed as the boogeyman, but Bakole didn't train at all and had to take 3 flights to get to Saudi in time. Looks like he was just happy to take the payday.


Kabayel vs Makhmudov - Makhmudov was viewed as one of the next challengers for the world title, because he destroyed every opponent until he fought Kabayel. Kabayel was a massive underdog and nobody saw it coming, but he destroyed Makhmudov with ease and made look Makhmudov like a clumsy novice.


Kabayel vs Sanchez - Frank Sanchez was also a top-10 ranked fighter and one of the main candidates for a world title shot. Despite having knee issues (which I don't really believe it was a big issue), Kabayel destroyed him once again to the body and made him quit. Big statement win.


Kabayel vs Zhang - Wanted big Zhang to win this fight, but I knew it was very unlikely. Zhang showed like he trained a lot for this fight and was more motivated than ever, but despite Kabayel was dropped, there was only one outcome to this fight. Made a brutal statement by destroying Zhang to the body.


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If we compare the fights to other fights that occured later or earlier than the last 3:

- Wilder wasn't the same after the Fury fights
- Zhang is still a top fighter, but had it close with Parker while Kabayel knocked him out
- Bakole should have lost to Ajagba, the same Ajagba that lost every round against Sanchez a few years ago
- Makhmudov turned out to be a decent fighter, but not the monster a lot of people thought he was going to be
- Sanchez didn't fight anyone with a pulse after the Kabayel defeat


I believe this motivates that the 3 wins for Kabayel should be rated more highly than the 3 wins of Parker, certainly because they all ended in KO's.


If we look a little bit further, in terms of style and match up, Kabayel is also for us fans a more interesting choice than Parker. The Liver King brings a unique style and dismantles his opponents with brutal body shots, while there are still some question marks about how well Usyk can take body shots. Parker on the other hand is fast, has a good chin and a fairly amount of power, but it looks like we have seen it all from him and I just believe that Usyk is better in everything he does.

And at last, something which maybe isn't fair because Parker fought literally everyone and has improved drastically since, but the fact is that he still has 3 losses which could have been even more (Chisora I, Ruiz), while Kabayel is still undefeated despite having fought lesser quality of opponents in total.

To conclude: Both men have worked their way towards a title shot, and should both be the #1 and #2 in line of a title shot. I believe Kabayel deserves it a bit more based on the last three results, the style he brings to the ring (and how it would answer the last questions about Usyk), and with both champion and challenger undefeated. But if he's not next in line, it should definitely be Parker in that case and not Fury III, Joshua III, Itauma, or whatever they come up with....

 

Just like Wilder was before Parker beat him. He sparked Helenius in a round and everybody just thought Fury had his number and he was stil dangerous. Parker was 5/1 underdog (Kabayel was 6/1 underdog with Makhmudov) and most of the public said he would get knocked out.

 

Tbf even though he made hard work of it he did beat Chisora in the first fight, and flogged him in the second.

The Ruiz fight was a true pick em fight with a lot of swing rounds, both being quick draw exchange punchers back then. While I can see a case for Ruiz winning it, I don't think it was a robbery either. Vice versa if the decision had gone against Parker. They were both evenly matched fighters back then and Ruiz was up for it. I actually think its one of Parkers best wins.

 

I personally scored it as a draw. Very, very close fight.

 

Yet he was still top 5 coming off a KO1 win against Helenius as a massive favorite against Parker with only 2 losses and one draw to Fury. Wilder was also the former WBC champ.

Mahkmudov? An over hyped prospect that was brutally exposed by Kabayel, and now he's not even that.

 

And my post addresses other key differences.

 

Makmudov was nothing more than a hype job at best because he had a scary look to some people, who had just barely scraped through a very faded Takam.

 

Parker lost to Whyte and Chisora. Kabayel is better.

 

Parker beat Chisora twice, Kabayels second best win, and Kabayel didn't even fight Whyte lol

 

Nobody actually believes Parker would beat Kabayel

 

And in alternative, I'd argue more realistic, perspective...

Wilder had had his level exposed but was still a decent enough fringe contender with serious, but not ATG power.
If you're taking the perception and expectation in the moment, as you did for Makh, then Wilder was still for a lot of posters here a top 3 fighter and only beaten because Fury was a goat contender - ridiculous, but that was the hype and a lot of people bought it.

Makh was massively overhyped at the time and Kabayel was seen with reasonable skepticism having beaten Chisora and then run around Europe fighting trash...

I can't see how it's remotely justifiable to see those as equivalent wins, let alone Makh as the better one.

Wilder was overhyped as hell but he could beat journeymen and scrape past solid gatekeepers like Ortiz... Whilst Makh was overhyped as hell and arguably not even a gatekeeper himself.