What's next for Zhang, Parker, Kabayel, Bakole, Hrgovic, and Ajagba?

Listening to the Bunce podcast earlier, Warren was talking about their upcoming February card (which I assume is Dubois vs Joshua 2), and had to catch himself when speaking to not reveal too much, but the impression that I got is that it’s going to be an all HW card.

 

Hopefully, name changes.

 

Inclined to agree here. It's shocking no new fights have been made.

 

Truly sad

 

Zhang will face Bakole in a final eliminator. I reckon Kabayel will go in the WBC direction, probably in an interim bout. Gassiev will probably still fight some of the more low key fighters in the division. Seeing as how Hrgovic is coming off a lose, and Ajagba is probably also looking for a big fight. This would be an excellent fight for both.

As for Parker. Personally him having a break is a good thing. He had five fights in the span of 14 months. Two of those against arguably the biggest punchers in the division. Another reason why he hasn't had a fight scheduled is his relationship (no homo) with Tyson Fury. If Fury manages to beat Usyk and claim the belts. There does exist a very good possibility that Fury will drop the WBO belt to help Parker out, so that he can be elevated to the full status.

The division will start to have more meaningful fights after the rematch between Usyk and Fury. 2024 has been a great year for the division, and I do hope that trend continues onto 2025.

 

Still no new HW fights. Hopefully after the Fury Usyk fight loads of quality fights will be made. I'm sick of threads about Fake Paul, Tommy Fumbles Fury etc. I want proper fights to look forward to.

 

Usyk fought once (he'll fight again with 10 days left in the year ... then probably not until next fall)
Fury fought once (he'll fight again with 10 days left in the year ... and probably not until next fall)
Joshua fought once.
Parker fought once.
Wilder fought once (and basically retired).
Bakole fought once.
Kabayel fought once.
Hrgovic fought once.
Ruiz fought once.
Miller fought once.
Sanchez fought once.
Chisora fought once.
Ajagba fought once.

The most active heavyweights were Daniel Dubois, Fabio Wardley and Zhang, who fought twice.

Daniel Dubois was the real bright spot.

Wardley actually became a title contender just by adding one win and a draw to his record ... because that was still better than everyone else (except Dubois).

Things need to pick up A WHOLE LOT.

Turki has brought this entire scene to nearly a standstill. Guys fought more often during Covid.

I'm surprised we found anything to talk about. It wasn't the actual fights taking place, that's for sure.

 

So everyone will fight in February and then take the next 10 months off? Great.

(Don't mean to be sarcastic, but these guys rarely fight more than once a year, no matter how early in that year they have their one fight.)

Joshua won't be on that show. Hearn has already said Joshua won't fight until next May/June.

Hopefully it'll be Dubois-Wardley, as they are both exciting and both have proven they're willing to get back in the ring right away and don't need 10-month training camps.

We need some new life.

There's nothing wrong with two guys fighting early in their careers and fighting a couple more times as their careers progress. Losses don't matter as much if you're active.

 

There's a big chance we're gonna see Bakole vs Ajagba in an IBF final eliminator next.

Billy Nelson says that Kabayel, Zhang and Sanchez have declined to fight Bakole in an eliminator. Ajagba is next up on the list. I don't see why he would decline.

 

Bakole vs. Ajagba would be a good enough fight, we should still favor Bakole, too bad for Hrgovic, I would like to see him against Wardley...

 

The IBF have officially called for Bakole vs. Ajagba with the winner to fight Dubois.

 

It's rumored to be Dubois vs. Parker and Zhang vs. Kabayel.

 

Turki has saved the HW division, look at the quality of fights we're having now.