Agit Kabayel vs. Damian Knyba set for January 10.

Nothing. It wasn't my point at all.

 

Really poor choice of opponent for Kabayel, who should be in contention for big fights like Usyk, Dubois, and Wardley.

Whatever way you look at it, this fight is garbage. Promoters hang your heads in shame, as Kabayel is way better than this and we need to put him in the mix now.

 

6'7" just means more torso for Agit to feast on. Damian will be pissing blood for a week.

 

Knyba's best win is Richard Lartey...

 

Kabayel deserves a title shot and I would have preferred to see him face a better, more important fighter. For a few days, there was talk of a match against Dubois for the German, but unfortunately nothing came of it. I hope that after this fight Kabayel will find an opponent among the top heavyweights in Ring Magazine's rankings. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll ever see him against Usyk.

 

TBH, in my eyes, targeting Hysa and then Knyba means he's less deserving of a shot than he was straight after Zhang... Taking fights this bad should have negative consequences.

 

I think its disgusting actually taking soft touches like this and it couldn't be more obvious of this.

 

There's taking soft touches and there's taking the ****... This is the latter.

Taking an international level journeyman would be a soft touch - a fight that'd be overwhelmingly in his favour, but not quite a complete pisstake for a supposed champion level contender...
But this isn't that - this is a domestic level mediocrity, a fight he cannot possibly lose against someone who hasn't even fought a proper international level journeyman yet.

It's pathetic, it's cowardly and it should hurt his reputation - but it won't.

Pathetic.

 

Unfortunately Kabayel isn't a big name and doesn't represent a high-paying opportunity for a champion like Usyk, and the same goes for Parker (Turky Alalshikh said a few months ago he wasn't interested in matching Usyk and Parker). Kabayel remains the interim WBC champion and I think that after this match he will face a fighter well positioned in the world rankings (I would have preferred he had faced him now) and I believe he'll get his world title shot sooner or later, probably not against Usyk. In my opinion, Kabayel deserves the world title shot more than Wardley, but the Englishman could be Usyk's next opponent.

 

Correct...

And the way to become a bigger, more attractive name who brings more views (and with it more money)?

Hint: it's not running back to Germany to fight nobodies.

Maybe - I'll believe it when I see it, after this debacle.

Probably...
Then again, if he decides to fight sporadically and only against poor quality opponents it could, potentially, provoke the WBC into forcing him into a tough fight (which he could find difficult if he makes himself rusty) - it's not like he's going to generate them lots of money, the motivation to protect him isn't really there (even compared with Wilder, who wasn't a particularly huge draw pre-Fury - and Wilder wasn't fighting once a year).

Wardley is progressing the way fighters should - taking tougher and tougher challenges... Kabayel has chosen to take a huge step backwards.

There's a part of me that feels Wardley probably does actually deserve it a bit more - but if it's not on the table for him either I'm open to revising that opinion if he chooses to fight someone as poor as Hysa or Knyba...

Kabayel looks like a good fighter, but I hate that he's chosen this big a step down - and the fact it's not the first time in his career that he's done so makes me less willing to dismiss it as a one-off occurrence (because it isn't) or to trust that he'll step right back up next time out (because it took him 6 bumfights after Chisora to step back up to a real international journeyman level fighter in Makh).

 

I too, as I wrote before, would have preferred to see Kabayel face a better opponent. He tried to challenge Dubois, but the Englishman has other plans (Frank Sanchez, already defeated by Kabayel). For now, the German fighter has this match of little interest, then we'll see what happens. With the interim WBC title, he'll have to face some serious opponents if he wants to confirm his status as an official WBC world title contender.

 

I know - for me this fight isn't really acceptable for him to take.

I don't buy that.

Dubois, for his flaws, isn't the sort to duck - indeed, he's taken fights he knew he'd lose (Usyk 2 in particular) and fights that weren't a good idea (Joyce).

It's far more likely, IMHO, that either:
1) Kabayel was the one who swerved it.
2) It was never anything other than an attention stunt.
3) The two guys wanted to fight but were told, in private, that it's not going to happen and they should stop talking about it.

Indeed... I'd like to be proven wrong, but he has a history of wasting position by taking crap fights - let's hope he doesn't go on another 6 year bumfighting journey.

I'll believe he's interested in good fights when he actually uses what position and draw he has to actually make some... He's been on a much better, if overhyped, run lately - until this.

Maybe - the WBC isn't exactly the most reputable at heavy, though.

 

Hes a champion all those saying "hes deserving or less deserving of a shot" are haters.

 

What makes you think he's actually in position to make good fights? From where I stand it looks like, unless Saudi money are involved and he can fight in their undercard, Kabayel simply isn't big enough to financially afford fighting against well-known opponents.