Tyson had already done that by 87/88. And I'm free to rate Kabayel over some of those guys, maybe Itauma, Sanchez, etc as well
Fair enough. I remain convinced that Kabayel is CLEARLY the most deserving to get a shot at Usyk right now. Previously that distinction belonged to Parker, whose wins against Wilder-Zhang-Bakole clearly made him most deserving. Right behind him was Dubois, who himself was on a nice streak after losing to Usyk the first time. But since Parker was stopped by Wardley, and Dubois was knocked out for a second time against Usyk - it's clear to me that the next most deserving contender based on MERIT is Kabayel. I'm actually a bit baffled that anyone could possibly see it any differently. His only recent competitor for that spot would have been Wardley, but he was subsequently stopped against Dubois. Kabayel is undefeated, but more importantly, his recent winning streak against Makh-Sanchez-Zhang-Knyba is the most impressive streak in the division short of what Usyk has done (where Usyk remains a clear cut above everyone else). Are the guys Kabayel beat all world beaters? Nope. But he was the underdog against Makh and Sanchez and he dominated them both, and did so in style against the odds. Then he proceeded to beat Zhang like nobody had before, overcoming adversity and rising from a brutal knockdown along the way. If ANYONE is more deserving of a shot at Usyk than Kabayel based on MERIT, well... I'd sure love to hear someone attempt to make that argument.
Kabayel fights once a year, and he fights opponents outside top 30. Usyk didn’t fight Kabayel because the other fights would have earned him much more money.
Zhang is older than the Great Wall of China. The man is old, slow, lazy, and has no stamina. A win over him means nothing. He hasn’t even fought since the Kabayel fight.
Strawman, and an irrelevant one at that. My question was: If ANYONE is more deserving of a shot at Usyk than Kabayel based on MERIT, well... I'd sure love to hear someone attempt to make that argument. So who is your answer? Key word here being MERIT. And regardless of what you personally think about Zhang, he was a Top 5 lock when Kabayel obliterated him.
Zhang beat the crap out of Kabayel in first round and quickly got exhausted due to his advanced age, still he managed to knock down Kabayel later. Then Kabayel took advantage of Zhang being exhausted. I look at Kabayel's resume and I see nothing special. A 600 year old Zhang, Makhmudov (who has beaten nobody notable in his career) and a Sanchez with injury. He fights once a year, his opponents are outside top 30. He got knocked down in 2nd round by Agron Smakici, who's #196 in world heavyweight rankings. So, Kabayel doesn't deserve a title fight with Usyk more than Dubois, Fury, Itauma, Joshua and Gassiev does. He's not in the same league with these fighters.
He categorically is considered the best HW at the moment and obviously of his generation. He's ranked #1 at HW and he will be until someone proves otherwise. Just because he relinquished the belts it doesn't mean he isn't still #1 The new #1 will be established after Usyk's next and final fight. If he wins he retires and the #1 spot is up for grabs from those behind him in the remaining pack, if he loses he loses that distinction Is he still the best HW in the world at almost 40 y/o and long past his prime? Now that is debatable but even then he's still the one who has the strongest case for being so It wasn't just a case of him fighting the much bigger, much younger and more powerful prime Kabayel they were trying to stack the deck even more in Kabayel's favour by having old man Usyk fighting him in his backyard on a deck heavily stacked against him again which is an expectation that no other current champion is put upon in their prime, let alone at 40 y/o or a couple of months away from turning 40 so they expect Usyk to keep playing by a set of rules and keep putting himself at great disadvantages even at 40 y/o that his peers don't or aren't expected to play by in the midst of their primes and this is after he forged a career doing exactly that and they never do or very rarely if so. Just keep putting yourself at great disadvantage old man Usyk until we finally get you beat but we don't expect any of our boys to do the same in their primes, let alone do so routinely
What a dumb argument Usyk has achieved everything there is to achieve and proven everything there is to prove amateur and pro and his career is not confined to HW he didn't even win his first title at HW until he was almost 35 Olympic gold World Amateur gold European gold Won the WSB at SHW Undisputed CW champion 2 x Undisputed HW champion 2 x Fighter of the Year Undefeated Won and unified all his world titles in his opponent's backyards sans one which was still on the road and not exactly neutral He fought or defended his titles at HW vs reigning champs and the #1 and #2 rated contenders sans Dubois I who was his mandatory and the regular champ and unranked Rico is his lone 'soft touch' fight during any of his reigns as champ at either CW or HW and he was freaking 39 y/o for that one And he was contractually bound to the rematches vs AJ and Belly and they were put in place to hurt him and get him beat not benefit him but somehow this has been twisted to try and discredit him Has won all his fights via the application of pure skill and clean boxing with no deck-stacking or use of dirty tactics and a grand total of zero home country refs for all his world title fights and fights at the world level and a whopping 2 home judges, and he hasn't lost a fight in 17 years despite campaigning at the elite level for the vast majority of that time and yet despite all that and running a murderer's row of punchers and KO artists he has never been dropped or even badly hurt as a pro or knocked out in over 370 fights amateur and pro. Do you understand how insanely rare it is we can say that all or even most of that about any fighter regardless of their greatness? He's 39 y/o soon to turn 40 and the 4th oldest HW champ ever, the 3rd oldest unified HW champ ever, and the oldest undisputed HW champ ever not 29, 30, 31, 32 or even 35-37. He's almost 40 and the oldest opponent on his entire resume was 38 and the oldest world class one 36 or 37 if you count Rico
I'll happily admit I was a Fury fan boy at one point but he lost all my respect after his behaviour, messing both AJ and Usyk around for so long, and wasting time by fighting Chisora and Ngannou instead of giving everyone the fights we wanted to see, and only did so when he couldn't refuse the money. And then even more so since his refusal to accept the Usyk losses, and putting it down to the Ukraine situation. I get the point you and others are making, but after everything Usyk has achieved, and at his age, I just can't see it as a duck, so we'll agree to disagree. I like that Usyk gave up the belts himself rather than letting them all be stripped... that says a lot to me.
How Okolie made cruiserweight I have no idea. I don't know how the guy even managed to make the weight without collapsing. Cruiserweights transitioning to heavyweight are NOT meant to be as big as him. But then again, we know what he's been up to of late.
I even thought Kabayel was way more deserving than Parker, even before Parker lost to Wardley. Parker beat a shot Wilder, and then a slow, low-stamina Zhang on points (while getting knocked down twice). And as for Bakole, he had no business being in that ring. Kabayel stopped an undefeated Makhmudov who was all the hype. Stopped an undefeated Sanchez who many people backed to get a title shot at some point. Then did something no one else could do and stopped Zhang, only getting knocked down once. I was way more impressed by Kabayel's run. I wasn't convinced by Parker... I won't deny it was a good run of opponents but it always felt like, compared to Kabayel, he did the bare minimum to get through it, even though that was probably the actual best he could do, as he's just not quite good enough. Still, what he was doing against Wardley I don't know. Made the same exact mistake he did against Joyce and fought like an idiot. I'd actually backed him to beat Wardley on points, after seeing the way Huni outboxed him. Parker could have done exactly the same if he'd just gone with the same strategy that had got him into that position in the first place.
World Boxing Super Series winner too. Got a nice trophy to go with his all his belts. This content is protected No matter what people say to try and discredit him, he is the king.