Agit Kabayel is a very good fighter. Tough, skilled, good punch variety and great body puncher. But my word his activity throughout his career has been so low. 26 fights in getting on a 15 year career. Only 1 of those against a top 10 fighter (Zhang. i wouldn't count Chisora as top 10 when Kabayel beat him).. Other than 2023 you have to go back to 2017 to when he fought twice in a year. At the moment looks like he'll only fight once in 2025. Again. Any idea why he's so inactive generally (not just now but throughout his whole career). I'm not aware of any major injuries. just very bad promotion, Kabayel himself not being that ambitious or anything else ?
Maybe now but in the past he's been really inactive as well. Maybe he just has lots of hobbies which keeps him busy.
Who could he realistically fight ? Our "champ" is busy curing his injuries with a dance and wbo chairman is busy shopping new sports cars with ukrainian eu dollars instead of organizing something. Maybe hrgovic or wilder to do anything at all , i cannot imagine the wlad story in germany is still discussed behind closed doors .
The days of fighters fighting 4 times a year is long gone. Once a fighter with good management and enough wins to becomes ranked, he slows down to fighting once a year waiting for a big Saudi payday. Throw in some gaps for injuries or fights falling apart and this is the sad new normal for boxing.
Exactly he’s waiting like Parker for his Title shot. For either fighter to fight anybody else after the hard parts been done whilst waiting for a shot at Usyk is madness imo .
Because he's not that good and was protecting his record. Nobody was scared of him just because he beat Chisora. He became a star on this forum after beating a guy in his forties. Fury was boo-ed for trying to set up a fight with him years ago. This whole idea of being left out is laughable. Just look at Charr, who tried to make fights with everyone and got a fight with Vitali, with Povetkin, with some other known characters, got promised a fight by Haye and Fury even if they didn't go through with it. Point is, he was out there trying to get fights. The 'big guns' are always looking for people to bully who look half decent, it's right up there alley. People like Kebabyal, Zhang, Joyce, they're simply playing it safe until the last minute, that's why they fight basically nobody until middle-age.
Warren said he wants Hrgovic against Itaum, and if that fight doesn't happen, he said Hrgovic's opponent will be someone from the Top 10, possibly Kabayel...
If I recall, Kabayel is headlining a show in Germany towards the end of this year, and he is in Frank Warren's stable. Not sure who he'd fight though, he is a good fighter - so hopefully against someone in the top 10-15 at least!
Fury, Wilder and AJ weren't fighting new contenders for a very long time. Kabayel has been a regional champ since 2016 and could have gotten a title shot in like 2017/2018. Hes been "sitting on a title shot" that long.
After watching a couple of his interviews, caveat they were in German so I'm not sure how accurate the translation was, but he gives of the vibe of someone who feels a bit hard done by, like he hasn't been given the opportunities he thinks he deserves. Things like because he is German no one wants to fight him etc. Its true that being from the UK or US is an advantage, but that doesn't mean a fighter can't be succesful coming from somewhere else. They just need to put the work in and take the risks where as Kabayel seems happy to sit at home taking on the odd taxi driver to stay ticking over and wait for an opportunity to fall in his lap. He is lucky Turki came along and offered some paydays to get some heavyweights fighting each other, otherwise Kabayel would probably still be sitting in Germany fighting bums once or twice a year. Someone else said it in this thread, but compare this to Charr who took the risks, put himself out there and got the opportunities, didn't make excuses or sit at home feeling sorry for himself.