German heavyweight Agit Kabayel pushing for a fight no one wants at the moment and it is not looking good for it.
Kabayel has done well in recent years at heavyweight and has defeated the likes of Frank Sanchez — the talented Cuban — by knockout (in 2024) — as well as knocking out Zhilei Zhang in 2025 — the tough China heavyweight.
Sanchez viciously knocked out US former prospect and formerly undefeated Richard Torrez Jr only last month as well — so Kabayel’s wins look even more impressive now.
But he’s a ‘mandatory’ for one of the belts current heavyweight champion Usyk holds.
A term no longer respected in boxing by anyone as the boxing sanctioning bodies came up with it and they are out of fashion for a while now — and are never coming back into it.
The fact remains boxing as a sport and spectators around the world either want to see Usyk in competitive dangerous fights or not at all.
He recently barely pulled a win out at the last minute against a kickboxing champion who nearly shocked the world against him.
That kickboxer, Rico, had just only one professional boxing match prior to fighting Usyk.
Apparently Usyk only has a week to make his mind up on the fight or lose his belt with one of those sanctioning bodies, who no one cares about anymore.
Some notes on this possible rubbish fight for those new to boxing:
- Kabayel is undefeated at 27-0 with 19 KOs and holds the WBC interim heavyweight title.
- He is ranked highly but not a big name.
- Kabayel is a strong body puncher who has stopped recent opponents with liver shots.
- Usyk has shown past vulnerability to body attacks from fighters like Dubois.
- Kabayel has defeated strong contenders like Arslanbek Makhmudov as well (who fought Tyson Fury recently).
- Many reports and Kabayel himself state that Usyk and promoters are avoiding him as mandatory challenger.
- Kabayel expects Usyk to vacate a title rather than fight him.
- The matchup is seen as high-risk, low-reward for Usyk with limited commercial upside.
- Fighting Kabayel would be a tough, grinding affair with pressure and body work.
- A close or competitive fight against Kabayel would tarnish Usyk’s legacy by showing vulnerability late in his career against a non-superstar opponent.
At the end of the day Kabayel has done alright in recent years but at this point of Usyk’s careers boxing and spectators only want to see him in the most dangerous fights or with the biggest names at this point.
If he takes this fight it will only tarnish his legacy even further than after nearly losing to a kickboxer recently.
Something that caused Usyk to fall in the boxing pound for pound rankings.