July 18th @ Seebühne Elbauenpark, with the vacant WBA continental heavyweight title on the line. Battle of hulks residing in Germany, but with Mediterranean roots. This marks the unbeaten Kurdish-Westfälian's return to action following an unintentional 1½-year layoff. He withdrew from a purse bid to face Joseph Obey Joyce last fall, then signed with Top Rank and was supposed to make his debut with the promotion versus Mariusz Wach in March. The forty-year-old Polish giant withdrew twice with injury (first in early February and then again from the rescheduled date in late March) and eventually returned with a UD over Kevin Johnson last month. The six foot six inch Athenian-Frankfurter, who is a veteran of the Bigger Is Better semi-pro tourney scene (and pretty much found his level there), has yet to compete in 2020. He fought thrice last year, and has kept an overall busier schedule than younger Kabayel.
I would like to see more of Kabeyel, but you just know this is one of those guys that will not try to pull the trigger until he is 40. good luck to him. Lazaridis is a useful veteren/gatekeeper type, and I watched the bigger is better loss to Breidis, and a few of his early fights. You never know in boxing, but I think Kabeyel wins handily, and the thing to watch is if he gets the KO, or, maybe more likely, the TKO. Fight more Kabeyel! You already beat Chisora...how about at least a Christian Hammer next, and work your way up to someone like Washington or Breazele?
Kabayel was supposed to fight in the US in January but VISA issues prevented him from doing so. Hopefully they can resolve that in the future. Would love to see him in against some of the other Top Rank HWs such as Takam or Rivas.
I mean, the Greek could prove to be a banana peel. He's on that same "Erkan Teper adjacent" tier as Christian Hammer (where you either win or lose on close terms versus the big lurkin' Türk on a given night). We don't yet know whether Kabayel is significantly above that.
