Kabayel v knyba predictions guys?????

Knyba looks great on paper. Hes your standard issue HW contender.

Whats wrong with Knyba? Not what he didn't do but whats there that suggests hes not good?

 

He looks like a nothing on paper, because he basically is...

As far as top level boxing goes he's a prospect - a million miles from a contender.

It's not like soft touch fights against nobodies are something new - I can understand wanting to see a good fight despite it looking for all the world like a classic soft touch, but I can't quite process being unable to accept that that's exactly what it is, in truth?

What's wrong is precisely the fact that he's proven nothing...

Not because it's impossible to be way, way better than you've proved yet - but because it's really quite rare for that to happen.

Two main reasons:
1) The better the opponent, the harder it is to look good.
2) Most don't make it from top 1000/500/100/50 to top 10.

Put it all together and, ultimately, looking good against nobodies doesn't tell you very much - and huge numbers guys who look great against cans turn out to be completely incapable of getting to the top levels.


For my money, you're asking the wrong question...
By asking what the reasons are to think he's not good, there's an implicit assumption that he probably is unless there's good reason to think otherwise - for my money, that's completely backwards, the assumption should be that they're not much better than they've proved unless there are significant reasons for thinking they are (for reasons as above).
And I don't find hunches or looking decent against poor opponents to be particularly good reasons, call me cynical if you like, I just call it realistic.

 

Contenders don't have to prove anything. They just have to have flashy record and not struggle against lower level competition.

 

Contenders are the level above gatekeepers - how can someone be a contender when they've never even fought international level gatekeepers... Or even proper international journeymen?

Right now there are few heavyweight contenders, IMHO.

 

Because the champs haven't fought anyone except a small group for 10 years.

Thats their champ not the rest of the divisions.

HW contender means someone who fought for a HW belt. Assuming this fight happens Knyba is a HW contender!

 

I don't think that's a definition too many would agree with, at least not without a lot of caveats...

By that definition every deliberate soft touch opponent becomes a contender and guys who are better than them (but haven't fought for belts) are not.

And it, of course, opens the door to which belts count...

If we're only talking about the real belts, then, for example Pulev is a contender and Gassiev isn't - and who won when they fought?

Or, for example, Gerald Washington was a contender but Joe Joyce wasn't? Even though there were levels and levels between them


If you're just trying to get all subjectivity out if it, good luck, it's only really possible by defining so loosely that it becomes silly - or so tightly that either nobody understands it or that obvious exceptions are excluded.


Can you see why this definition doesn't work for me?

 

Joyce fought for an interim belt. He is officially a contender.

I don't consider the WBC HW belt between Vitali v Danny Williams and Wilder v Ortiz I "canon". But officially yes Washington is a contender. Honestly Washington is deserving of the label contender hes not the reason one would consider Wilders reign fraudulent if he was one of the worse opponents in that stretch not one of the best ones.

Gassiev is a contender and champion at CW.

 

Ok so you are counting secondary belts, etc...

Gawd there must be 50+ contenders active by that metric, easily!

Seems a bit of a pointless category if it's defined loosely enough to cover such a wide spread of ability.

I don't think the vast majority on here would agree with that, but to each their own.

By your definition Knyba is a contender, by almost everyone else's he's a prospect at most... We don't necessarily have to disagree that much on how good he is/isn't to be miles apart because of definitions and semantics, which seems a waste of time to me.

 

Just world and interim.

There are not 50 contenders active by my metric because the champions have been going around in circles for years.

Technically he'll only become a contender when he enters the ring and isn't one yet.

 

I know absolutely nothing about Knyba. Nothing. He may be awful. But he's new. He's still in his 20s (barely). He turned pro during Covid and has been a pro a little over four years, but this will be his 18th fight. And I'll be rooting for him.

Plus, he's Polish. Polish fans are rabid fans. It's always good to have them around.

Agit Kabayel turns 34 this year. He's been a pro for 15 years. This will only be his 27th fight (less than two fights a year on average as a pro). He's only managed to win an interim belt. And, even with that, Usyk has little to no interest in fighting him for the actual title.

Boxing needs "a spark." Knyba most likely isn't it. (Again, I've never heard of the guy. I did a cursory search on YouTube. Otherwise, no.) But the division needs boxers who can whip up fan support. And Kabayel "ain't it." Sorry.

Some fighters peak the public's interest. Kabayel has had a very long time to "catch fire." But he continues to plod along, fighting once a year, if that. If he's going to fight nobodies, like Knyba, then I hope the NOBODY wins and becomes a somebody.

The division needs new blood. (Even Wardley is 31.) They've got to come from somewhere. Because guys like Kabayel aren't carrying it anywhere.

It would be nice if the heavyweight division had a collection of top fighters in their 20s who fought regularly. That's when things tend to really pick up. These years of guys in their 30s or older fighting once a year (or not at all) is just a slog.

 

Lots of heavyweights (at least 12) on this card, including 6 who are undefeated and another three with just one loss. Milas vs Shala is a good competitive matchup, and Dietz vs undefeated Salami is decent as well.

Looks like it will be on regular DAZN which I subscribe to.

https://boxrec.com/en/event/935693

Although he's not on the BoxRec schedule, Frank Warren has said Adeleye will be fighting on Saturday as well, so that means 14 heavyweights on the card!

 

Who? Let's see him face a top 5 guy. The Zhang win is impressive, but he is old as hell and still scored a knockdown.

I think Parker can beat him.

 

Stoked for this; echoing Perkin Warbeck, latest word is that the undercard will be heavy on heavyweights:

Agit Kabayel vs. Damian Knyba, 12 rounds, for Kabayel’s WBC interim heavyweight title
Jadier Herrera vs. Ricardo Nunez, 12 rounds, for vacant WBC interim lightweight title
Granit Shala vs. Petar Milas, 10 rounds, heavyweights
Roman Fury vs. Toni Thes, 6 rounds, heavyweights
David Adeleye vs. Robin Och, 8 rounds, heavyweights
Gleb Bakshi vs. Juan Jose Rodriguez Duran, 10 rounds, middleweights
Oronzo Birardi vs. Milosav Savic, 8 rounds, cruiserweights
Kevin Saszik vs. Patrick Schaefer, 8 rounds, heavyweights
Nelvie Tiafack vs. Piotr Cwik, 6 rounds, heavyweights
Daniel Dietz vs. Seun Salami, 6 rounds, heavyweights

 

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