Isn't Kabayel most deserving?

sure but Zhang's aura was different when he fought Parker. IMO its a bigger risk when you take on a guy who is coming off back to back wins vs an elite fighter vs a guy who is 1-1 in his last 2 fights.

 

He never "ducked" anyone. He was regarded as high-risk and so was avoided.

And he didn't have an influential promoter like Fish Eyes or Hearn, who could get him into bigger fights.

 

We all can see that Kabayel would probably destroy Parker. I am a Parker fan, but honestly he is good but never was great. Look how Opetaia took care of the guy that went 12 rounds with Parker

 

Dubois should get the shot. He beat better opposition recently.

We may think he'll lose to Usyk, but that's not really relevant. He earned the shot by beating better recent opposition. That's what you should do to get a shot.

 

A metric which conveniently cuts out the absolute dross he fought for years?

Look, I get it, Kabayel looks decent and it's exciting to see someone new looking like they might just have what it takes.

But as I see it, there's only two ways you can put Agit up there as remotely near as deserving as Parker or Dubois:
1) Put a very heavy weighting on still having the magic zero.
2) Subtracting previous title fights from the worthiness of guys who have already had a shot.

Parker and Dubois both have way, way deeper resumes (partly possible because Kabayel's is, if we're honest and fair, very thin - it's basically just Zhang, Chisora and dropd off a cliff after that) - but neither is unbeaten and both have had title shots before... And short of getting into the subjectivity of who's hyped the most, that's about the sum of things.

I don't, personally, think that those metrics balance out in favour of Kabayel (and for me if isn't close) but some people value being unbeaten more highly than I do (I find it impressive with a deep and solid resume, but otherwise a curiosity) and some are desperate to see new matchups moreso than I am.

I just want to see the best proven guys getting in there with good opponents... It's nice if they're the most deserving, and the most proven guys are most likely to make for good fights, but I don't necessarily have a problem with less deserving guys getting a shot.

 

Nah, get back in line. Fight someone with a pulse.

Not taking anything away from him but saying he would "destroy" Usyk is fan boy talk.

 

I just want to see AJ get chinned again. Funny every time.

 

Well let's look at it then.

Kabayel turned pro in 2011 and has accumulated 26 fights.

Parker turned pro a full year after him and has 39 fights, fighting a higher level of opponent over a sustained period.

Even Andy Ruiz has had 12 more fights than him and he is not known for his activity, and he turned pro only 18 months before hand.

Kabayel's only wins against legit opposition are Chisora (who'd had 7 losses at that point) and Zhang - both of whom Parker defeated. Between those bouts he was fighting the likes of Smakici and Rudenko. He beat Kevin Johnson for the 18th time in his career, and that fight wasn't that long ago.

So it's not like Kabayel has ever really gone for it. He's an interesting fighter and aesthetically pleasing but judging by some of the posts on this forum he is getting dangerously close to overhyped right now.

If we go through their resume's I don't think it's even an argument of who has the better case here.

 

Kabayel is on a very good run but IMO he needs to beat one serious contender such as Parker to deserve a shot at the title.

Dubois has beaten better competition than Kabayel in their last 3 fights.