Makhmudov will knock out Joshua.

Pretty clear AJ has been put into a dark isolation room protected to let Fury KO him next year

 

Kabayel has power. Perhaps not as much when it comes to head shot as it is with body shots, but if you look at fights where he continually goes to the body and gets knockouts, opponents end up in absolute agony. His body shots are HARD.

Kabayel is the real boogeyman.

 

Because Fury won't fight him. Immediately after the second Usyk-Fury fight, AJ was pushing hard for a fight with Fury. It made perfect sense. The two biggest British stars, neither has an 0 anymore, neither has a belt, but it would still be a 9 figure payday for both men. Hearn wanted to make it happen as well. Fury noped the hell out of it.

Fury will never fight AJ. I don't know why, I think he'd probably beat AJ. Hell, if Usyk up and retired right now, I think the most likely outcome is that Fury collects all the belts. Only the dark horses (Kabayel and Ituama) might have a shot, and even then, Fury probably beats both, and probably ruins Ituama.

 

Kabayel wins strongly against Joshua. What did you see recently that says he beats kabayel? His best ahots from the last three fights don't stop kabayel. The other way round it's a different story.

Kabayel is a stupid opponent to take for anyone

 

AJ beats Makh brutally in my opinion.

 

Realistically, he looks like he'd beat Joshua on current form.

There remains a slight possibility that he's become a bit overhyped - Makh and Sanchez are massively overrated and Zhang might've just been the right man at the right time (as Joyce was for Zhang, say)... There's no doubt he's good, and he's performing well - but exactly how well isn't completely clear, the evidence is fairly thin.

Equally, Joshua was poor last time out and will likely be both rusty and fighting himself inside his own head... Odds look like someone like Kabayel should stop him, you just never know.

 

Yep early punchers chance only. Apart from that AJ gets him out of there within 4 or 5 rounds possibly earlier.

 

He might have a bit of a hype. But how much, when almost noone places him higher than third behind parker if at all? By many he is just ignored on the basis that he isn't american or british and hasn't beaten either.

How bad could he actually be? How would anyone place him behind wardley? So worst case he is right behind hrgovic - on 5th or 6th place. Don't know if you can call that hype. If some call for Kabayel to get the shot at usyk instead of parker i think that isn't outrageous. Two candidates, two preferences. Who would want a third option? Fury, Joshua, Dubois? Hell no!

Compare that to Itauma and formerly Bakole, Ajagba, Hrgovic and Anderson. I would say kabayels 'hype' is more deserved. It's not like I'm saying he beats Usyk. I assume he has little chance against Usyk and Parker and Dubois would be very interesting close matches.

Kabayel looks the most sound of the contenders to me and I think he is (however narrowly) the best fighter outside Usyk right now.

I assume Joshua loses again against Dubois, Parker or Kabayel. Joshua really needs to show something against one of those caliber (and there are basically only these three right now) to have any claim on still being competitive at the top level.

 

TBF, my view on this (consistently) is that this is justifiable primarily because the division is thin and transitioning between eras.

Others you could reasonably put in that third place have either been embarrassingly dominated in losses, or been inactive, or both (Dubois, Joshua, Fury) and how they come back, if they do, will answer where they belong.

My point is mostly that his recent exploits are overrated somewhat - Sanchez and Makh are okay as opposed to special, and Zhang is at an age where things can go downhill fast PLUS has a very mixed record against decent fighters...

He looks really good, but the evidence is still on the thin side at the moment.

Hrgovic is realistically a gatekeeper level fighter - he's not beating contenders because he lacks the power to hurt them and the gas tank to decision them... He's bloody durable and he'll sort out lesser fighters, but he'll never come close to threatening the belts.

For sure - two wrongs don't necessarily make a right, of course, but yes there are certainly fighters who've been hyped hard for less.

 

Ok we're actually on the same page I think. It is a weak phase. But I just compare what's there right now and say kabayel is in the top spots because who else?

When judging a fighter's absolute objective level, I feel it is like implicitly comparing to other eras. I can't compare kabayel to any other era because I haven't seen enough.

But I have seen enough to know he is more interesting and better than basically anyone else has shown himself to be recently and if any current fighter fights usyk next, I think it should be him or parker. And I much prefer kabayel's style. I have never seen anyone go to the body this way (in heavyweight). The stabbing straights and powerjabs and how he throws them are a thing of beauty and I always love when a new approach gets added to the catalogue of boxing.

 

Mak has some of the slowest hands in the division and I don't even think his power is that amazing.

AJ stomps him and looks good doing so

 

And that's exactly my point - the evidence is thin, but he's probably up there.

IMHO it should 100% be Parker... And Kabayel is next in the pile, though not particularly close to Joe.

If nothing else, the main reason he should be next after Parker is that the only other potential candidates have already lost twice each - whether he's objectively done enough to deserve it more than Dubois, Fury or Joshua would be questionable if not for the fact they've already tried and failed.

And that's fine, it makes it interesting.

But equally, lots of people enjoyed Kabayel's last few fights more than Parker's... But this, along with still having the zero, are factors that tend to get fighters a bit overrated - it doesn't mean they're not deserving in some way, just that people will tend to overrate aggressive guys and unbeaten guys (relative to what they've proved).

 

It's pretty funny seeing the lovers of this fake idol pretending he hasn't ducked opponents.
When you understand that everyone wants to fight him due to the money and that his team is always 'A-side' and picks the opponent, then you understand that EVERY fight could have happened.

So now, you worms, explain why these fights never happened the last handful of years:

Joyce (pre Zhang)
Zhang
Wilder
Croatian
Fury

And instead he fought Franklin, old Helenius just splattered by Wilder, Wallin, then Dubious only because it was a title and Dubious was considered vulnerable having been stopped twice already.

I'll tell you why these fights didn't happen:
Joyce (pre Zhang), too dangerous due to size and perceived iron chin
Zhang, WAY too dangerous a puncher and hard to KO too
Wilder, still way too dangerous even after Fury
Croatian, too big and tough
Fury, better than him

 

ydksab...that said, I got Macno KOing AJ. It doesn't seem to be a risky pick atm.