Kabayel is Most Worthy Challenger for Usyk (VIDEO)

Fury followed up the Ngannou fight by almost getting KO'd by Usyk too. That was him "in shape".
Fury's struggled with Wallin 6 1/2 years ago.
I doubt Fury would do better against Knyba than Kabayel did. At any stage of his career probably.

Kabayel can't get your respect unless he does well against Usyk or beats him, right? But he can't do that unless Usyk fights him. But your logic says Usyk doesn't need to fight him, because he's not worthy. It's a catch 22.

 

Hmm...

I don't see the others dropping that far down the rankings for easy pickings though.

One of the reasons I have such a problem with it is because it's something he's done for years at a stretch before - it's irrelevant when he'd lose to Usyk anyway, but it would be incredibly bad for the division if Kabayel got a belt and held it hostage in Germany fighting guys outside the top 50...

No saying he absolutely would, but if he takes another crap opponent now, it starts to look like he might - the division has been made a mockery too recently with Wilder holding a belt hostage... The last thing it needs is Kabayel doing the same and arguably worse.

 

He fought the same giraffe that Duran created.

 

I'm with you on that.

But considering who is most 'deserving' will still have kabayel on top. I'm the first one to hate on him, when he starts to do that. I can even see it happening. But he is the most deserving unless one of the others actually does something.

And let's be honest it's not just him. Wilder fought easy touches. Fury fought his comeback fights and in betweens and avoided left and right. And joshua took less super easy touches, but also less super challenging ones.

AND most of all, the risk reward proposition is simply different for fighters like joshua:

He gets the fights he wants, because he brings money. And he gets them at the time he wants them and with the conditions he wants. Way easier to take such fights this way.

As if kabayel would have objected to fight in front of his exclusive home crowd against 40yr old klitschko for big money and fame...

And after that against old povetkin or pulev etc. All nice fights, but for super nice money.

It's simply easier to take challenges this way. Each time the betting favorite btw, not like kabayel vs makhmudov, sanchez and zhang. Each time the underdog.

In all honesty it would be idiotic of kabayel in a mandatory position to take challenges that might get him beat and earn him 250k or something.

It's the system. And the system works in a way that almost all top heavyweight fighters are currently from english speaking countries.

And what makes me doubt kabayel's opponents in case he wins the world title more than his resume so far is not his inner wish to avoid challenges, but the german audience where (being german) I assume most have no idea of boxing and you can basically give them dubois or #50 and they won't know the difference. So if they are the ones paying, any promoter would be stupid to risk anything against dubois ...

I have been late to watching german boxing tv (the questionable non international perspective on public tv). It was already on the way down, but I saw lots of skewed commentary and they would sell their average fighters as 'world champions' (of some minor organisation which they didn't mention) and push some affordable eastern european opponents around #1000 as if they were super dangerous.

That's what I am actually afraid of.

Kabayel is deserving. What comes after he gets the belt is indeed worrying, but not because of him, but the **** system boxing is.

Obviously kabayel could also take challenges, beat wardley and dubois (i would see him as a favorite to do that) and become the dominant champion after usyk.

This way he would make a whole different amount of money and be a superstar in germany and the greatest since schmeling. He could be a spokesman for the kurds.

I think it is entirely down to which of those two paths he takes (and if wardley, dubois etc give him the option)

 

This is a rare one, as I'm usually one of the hardest on Wilder for his super weak run of title defences...

But Knyba and Hysa, along with the run of 6 after Chisora (Rovcanin, Rudenko, Lazaridis, shot Johnson, Sour, Smakici), would all sit right at the bottom of the pile.

Wilder's run was pretty uninspiring, but Kabayel's shown a willingness to take on opponents from lower tiers still.

In all honesty, this isn't really true...

There's no question Joshua took less soft touches.

But less super challenging ones?
* Wlad - both fought him. Both fought compromised versions, but still both fought him.
* Usyk - both fought him, both lost clearly twice.

Now stack up Wilder and Chisora on the one hand against guys like Povetkin and Parker on the other - at worst, for Joshua, you could put them roughly equivalent (I wouldn't), but there's no way Fury took more really difficult opponents.

This is the bit I have problems with, I think... I just can't agree that there's a justification for ducking that badly.

Even IF we were granting that he shouldn't have to fight other contenders (I'd disagree but hey, there's not many about and it's undeniably more risky)... He could fight gatekeepers... He could fight actual international level journeymen.

Hiding with domestic level mediocrity is a real stain on him - and if he repeats it again, it's going to get harder and harder to defend.

Because the orgs can put up soft mandos or simply not enforce if someone's giving them enough money...

It would still make a mockery of the sport if he goes that way.

And, again, for me he's deserving right now - at 3 years out from Zhang if he fights another bum next? He won't be.
And that's the point - he's fighting once a year, so his next opponent is 2 years after Zhang... Waste that once a year fight, and you can become irrelevant VERY quickly - and Kabayel ought to know that better than anyone.

 

I would NEVER argue that he is justified in not defending his position versus the worthiest challengers. I hate that it is very easy to do and basically EVERYONE with half a name recognition is doing it (except mostly mexicans, japanese and australians).

I am only focussing on the comparison of his contemporaries and how the system actually seems to give different incentives to fighters with different backgrounds. It's a complaint about the system and an argument for why I think the personal motivations of kabayel might be less influential on his future choices of opponents after winning a title than what the economic/media situation around him generates.

The interesting thought experiment would be to put dubois, joshua or especially fury in his shoes and see how their career paths go