Tyson Fury vs. Agit Kabayel - 5 December 2020 (OFF)

[mickey1975]

FFS let's not go over old ground again with Otto fuckng Wallin

Fury has a lot of ground to make up, 2 fights with Wilder is a good start...but the other no hopers he beat meant sweet FA.

Rivas would mean something, Helenius would mean something, Hunter would mean something but Wallin hit the jackpot catching a sleep walking Fury on an off night. Forget the cut....Fury cried about that like he was the first boxer ever to get a cut in a fight Tyson simply underestimated Wallin l, who to be fair showed some durability, but not much else.

Make up ground on who? He’s undefeated and number one fighter in the world.

[THEBUTCH]

That's an opinion (which admittedly some will share). He hasn't gunned down a single top rated contender since winning a world title in 2015. Joshua has been doing his best to clean up the division. IMO Fury has work to do, you obviously see things differently. Fury's always quick to point out his competitors failings and stick the boot it, so in the same vein, the issues he had post-Vlad were his problems and in the meantime he hasn't made a single defence as champion....unless your counting the likes of that obscure cruiserweight from Albania, Pianetta, Schwartz and Wallin in bullsh1t "linear" world title defences

[Ruthless-RKO]

Eddie Hearn: Tyson Fury should fight Michael Hunter on Dec.5

Eddie Hearn wants to see Michael Hunter get the title shot against WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in his next defense on December 5th in the UK. Hearn feels that #10 WBC Hunter (18-1-1, 12 KOs) would be a good fight for Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs).

As of now, #15 WBC lower-level fringe contender Agit Kabayel is the leading candidate for the fight with Fury, who has decided he didn’t want to wait a month to fight Deontay Wilder in January. Efe Ajagba is the other name that is being considered by Fury.

Ajagba, who is an incredibly flawed heavyweight, is signed with Top Rank, as is Kabayel. Ajagba can punch, but he’s a mediocre fighter that struggles against journeyman level heavyweights.

Hearn thinks it’s a bad idea for Fury to take on Kabayel (20-0, 13 KOs) because there’s no money in a fight of that nature. Top Rank and ESPN can’t stick Fury vs. Kabayel on pay-per-view in the U.S and expect Americans to want to purchase that mismatch during the pandemic.

Obviously, there won’t be any interest in a fight between Fury and Ajagba, either.

Additionally, how eager would ESPN be to televise a mismatch like that? If you’re one of the top brass with ESPN, you’ve got to have huge reservations about Fury fighting another unknown heavyweight.

He already had two fights against Tom Schwarz and Otto Wallin before stepping up against Wilder. You don’t need another mismatch with Fury taking on an obscure heavyweight ranked at the bottom of the World Boxing Council’s rankings.

Hunter should get the Fury fight

I’m not so sure,” said Eddie Hearn to IFL TV about Fury fighting in December. “I don’t know. Who are you going to fight? Kabayel isn’t going to do any business.

“If he fights Michael Hunter. Rivas is a good fight. Charles Martin is alright. I’d love to see Hunter get an opportunity,” said Hearn. “When we were doing the AJ fight, it was between Hunter and Ruiz, and AJ approved both. We chose Ruiz.”

The 2012 U.S Olympian Hunter revealed that he beat Fury in the amateur ranks, and he would feel very comfortable fighting him again. Hunter doubts seriously that Fury will want to face him again because he’s looking for a soft job at this point to fight on December 5th.

Hunter has wins over these fighters:

Martin Bakole
Sergey Kuzmin
Alexander Ustinov
Iago Kiladze

The talented Hunter does really well against big heavyweights for some reason, possibly because of his combination punching and speed. Fury would have a lot of problems against a guy like Hunter. If that fight did take place, Fury would need to keep it clean and not throw rabbit punches as he did frequently in his rematch with Wilder last February.

[mickey1975]

That's an opinion (which admittedly some will share). He hasn't gunned down a single top rated contender since winning a world title in 2015. Joshua has been doing his best to clean up the division. IMO Fury has work to do, you obviously see things differently. Fury's always quick to point out his competitors failings and stick the boot it, so in the same vein, the issues he had post-Vlad were his problems and in the meantime he hasn't made a single defence as champion....unless your counting the likes of that obscure cruiserweight from Albania, Pianetta, Schwartz and Wallin in bullsh1t "linear" world title defences

I think Joshua losing to Ruiz and Fury stopping Wilder changed all that....

[THEBUTCH]

"changed all that" ? Seems overly benevolent to Fury. A good draw and an emphatic rematch win were great results, no question.

Joshua getting straight back in with Ruiz (and there were a few saying he shouldn't go straight back in) and learning from his mistakes counts for a lot IMO. Vlad, Povetkin, Parker, Ruiz rematch and late sub Takam is good form.

If Fury is the boxer some think he is, let's see the form on a regular basis...twice a year isn't much to ask.

[skanksta]

Hunter would be a very good opponent for a stay-busy fight.

[mickey1975]

"changed all that" ? Seems overly benevolent to Fury. A good draw and an emphatic rematch win were great results, no question.

Joshua getting straight back in with Ruiz (and there were a few saying he shouldn't go straight back in) and learning from his mistakes counts for a lot IMO. Vlad, Povetkin, Parker, Ruiz rematch and late sub Takam is good form.

If Fury is the boxer some think he is, let's see the form on a regular basis...twice a year isn't much to ask.

I thought he has looked poor since Wlad.

[THEBUTCH]

It is better opposition overall that AJ has boxed I'd suggest. I think it's harder to look good against consistently better opposition and getting beaten is more of a possibility.

I think Fury needs to pull his finger out and prove to the world he's a good world champion. We all think he can beat most of the guys out there, but prove it. Now he's with W@rren the chances of that happening are reduced greatly.

[ash.123]

People talk about AJ’s resume but is it really any better than Chisora, Chisora, Klitschko, Wilder, Wilder?

[THEBUTCH]

Chisora isn't world class. The best you get out of him is clear losing efforts most of the time when he touches world class operators.

AJ would would pummel Chisora.

Vlad, Povetkin, Parker, Ruiz were all top ten contenders and AJ was prepared to go in with Vlad again...Fury didn't.

Anyone can lose the plot, but AJ has kept it together and keeps fighting contenders...that's the facts of the matter.

How long until the next Fury meltdown I hope not and hope he starts acting like a champion.

[ash.123]

Chisora isn't world class. The best you get out of him is clear losing efforts most of the time when he touches world class operators.

AJ would would pummel Chisora.

Vlad, Povetkin, Parker, Ruiz were all top ten contenders and AJ was prepared to go in with Vlad again...Fury didn't.

Anyone can lose the plot, but AJ has kept it together and keeps fighting contenders...that's the facts of the matter.

How long until the next Fury meltdown I hope not and hope he starts acting like a champion.

Oh I know he’s not, far from it... just that Takam got mentioned on AJ’s resume.

Fury should have 2 wins over Wilder so his best 5 wins would be Wilder x2, Klitschko, Chisora x2. For me that would be better than Klitschko, Parker, Povetkin, Ruiz... Whyte?

[DrDuke]

Povetkin, Whyte, Parker are better than Chisora. But win over Wilder is better than winning any of those. While Fury's win over Klitschko is bigger than Joshua's one. So, it's fair to say, that Joshua's resume is superior with quantity, while Fury's resume is superior with quality. Fury's achievements are more impressive.

[ash.123]

Povetkin, Whyte, Parker are better than Chisora. But win over Wilder is better than winning any of those. While Fury's win over Klitschko is bigger than Joshua's one. So, it's fair to say, that Joshua's resume is superior with quantity, while Fury's resume is superior with quality. Fury's achievements are more impressive.

I agree

[dookus]

Povetkin, Whyte, Parker are better than Chisora. But win over Wilder is better than winning any of those. While Fury's win over Klitschko is bigger than Joshua's one. So, it's fair to say, that Joshua's resume is superior with quantity, while Fury's resume is superior with quality. Fury's achievements are more impressive.

[Cyclops]

Eddie Hearn: Tyson Fury should fight Michael Hunter on Dec.5

Eddie Hearn wants to see Michael Hunter get the title shot against WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in his next defense on December 5th in the UK. Hearn feels that #10 WBC Hunter (18-1-1, 12 KOs) would be a good fight for Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs).

As of now, #15 WBC lower-level fringe contender Agit Kabayel is the leading candidate for the fight with Fury, who has decided he didn’t want to wait a month to fight Deontay Wilder in January. Efe Ajagba is the other name that is being considered by Fury.

Ajagba, who is an incredibly flawed heavyweight, is signed with Top Rank, as is Kabayel. Ajagba can punch, but he’s a mediocre fighter that struggles against journeyman level heavyweights.

Hearn thinks it’s a bad idea for Fury to take on Kabayel (20-0, 13 KOs) because there’s no money in a fight of that nature. Top Rank and ESPN can’t stick Fury vs. Kabayel on pay-per-view in the U.S and expect Americans to want to purchase that mismatch during the pandemic.

Obviously, there won’t be any interest in a fight between Fury and Ajagba, either.

Additionally, how eager would ESPN be to televise a mismatch like that? If you’re one of the top brass with ESPN, you’ve got to have huge reservations about Fury fighting another unknown heavyweight.

He already had two fights against Tom Schwarz and Otto Wallin before stepping up against Wilder. You don’t need another mismatch with Fury taking on an obscure heavyweight ranked at the bottom of the World Boxing Council’s rankings.

Hunter should get the Fury fight

I’m not so sure,” said Eddie Hearn to IFL TV about Fury fighting in December. “I don’t know. Who are you going to fight? Kabayel isn’t going to do any business.

“If he fights Michael Hunter. Rivas is a good fight. Charles Martin is alright. I’d love to see Hunter get an opportunity,” said Hearn. “When we were doing the AJ fight, it was between Hunter and Ruiz, and AJ approved both. We chose Ruiz.”

The 2012 U.S Olympian Hunter revealed that he beat Fury in the amateur ranks, and he would feel very comfortable fighting him again. Hunter doubts seriously that Fury will want to face him again because he’s looking for a soft job at this point to fight on December 5th.

Hunter has wins over these fighters:

Martin Bakole
Sergey Kuzmin
Alexander Ustinov
Iago Kiladze

The talented Hunter does really well against big heavyweights for some reason, possibly because of his combination punching and speed. Fury would have a lot of problems against a guy like Hunter. If that fight did take place, Fury would need to keep it clean and not throw rabbit punches as he did frequently in his rematch with Wilder last February.

Ajagba is really the most interesting opponent. Unbeaten, big, dangerous for the upset... Michael Hunter is most famous for having a kind ref who let him last the 12 against Usyk at cruiser. A more cautious ref would have stopped it. He got beaten up. What's Hunter's best result at heavyweight? A draw with Povetkin? Hearn bigs up Hunter because he's fought for him and drew with the geezer who starched his number 2 heavyweight. Hunter is not interesting.

Ajagba is my personal best option.

[cormack]

not ajagba please !

any of the top fighters would toy with him

[Ruthless-RKO]

Arum on Fury Return: Kabayel, Takam The Leading Candidates For Dec. 5

Two men have emerged as potential challengers for heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury’s next fight, Agit Kabayel and Carlos Takam, Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, Fury’s co-promoter with allegedly, told BS on Tuesday night.

After Fury knocked out Deontay Wilder in the seventh-round of a one-sided rematch to retain the lineal title and win the WBC belt on Feb. 22 in Las Vegas, Wilder quickly exercised his contractual right to an immediate rematch, which was supposed to again be a joint pay-per-view between Fury broadcaster ESPN and Wilder broadcaster Fox.

However, the coronavirus pandemic and Wilder’s biceps surgery pushed the fight back from July to October and then to Dec. 19 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, where Arum hoped to have at least a limited amount of fans. But ultimately that date turned out not to work for ESPN because of the rescheduling of major college football games it did not want a pay-per-view to compete with.

With Dec. 19 out of the picture, Fury announced earlier this month that he would forego a third fight with Wilder and instead have a homecoming fight in the United Kingdom on Dec. 5 as a prelude to what he hopes will be an undisputed championship fight with British countryman and unified world titlist Anthony Joshua in 2021. Fury’s side claims that the deadline for the rematch clause with Wilder to be enforced has expired.

So, Fury’s team is looking at various opponents for Dec. 5 and Kabayel and Takam are the leading candidates, according to Arum, who co-promotes both fighters.

“He’s deciding on an opponent,” Arum said of Fury, adding that he still needs to talk about the particulars of any American broadcast with ESPN.

“I don’t know given the football schedule if we can do it on ESPN,” Arum said. “But until I get an opponent I’m not going to ESPN (to discuss it).”

But whoever Fury fights, Arum vowed that even with a possible Joshua fight at stake, he wanted the 32-year-old Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) to face a legitimate opponent. Kabayel, the unbeaten former European champion, and former world title challenger Takam would certainly fall into that category.

“I’m not doing a bus boy,” Arum said of Fury’s opponent. “Fury should beat Takam but Takam is at least known and he has been on ESPN. And he looked pretty good in the last fight. The other guy (Kabayel) is undefeated and he has fought some fairly decent guys. I haven’t come up with anybody else.”

Kabayel (20-0, 13 KOs), 28, of Germany, won the vacant European title by lopsided decision against Herve Hubeaux in February 2017 and made three defenses, including by majority decision against longtime contender Dereck Chisora in November 2017, before vacating it in 2019. He is coming off a one-sided unanimous 10-round decision over Evgenios Lazaridis on July 18 in Germany.

Kabayel was supposed to make his United States and Top Rank debut against Puerto Rico’s Victor Bisbal on Jan. 18 but was unable to secure a visa in time and the fight was called off.

Takam (39-5-1, 28 KOs), 39, of France, is as battle-tested as they come though he has lost to four top opponents, including by 10th-round knockout challenging Anthony Joshua for his unified titles on short notice in October 2017. He also has losses to Chisora, former world titlist Joseph Parker and Alexander Povetkin. But Takam has won four fights in a row, including a clear unanimous decision over Jerry Forrest on ESPN as a late substitute on July 9, taking the bout when Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller was dropped due to testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

Star Boxing’s Joe DeGuardia, Takam’s co-promoter, hopes his man lands the title shot.

“I’m hopeful that we will be able to put together a deal and we can have the fight,” DeGuardia told Boxing Scene. “Years ago (in 2012) an up-and-coming Tyson Fury fought one of my guys, Vinny Maddalone, so it would be a nice full circle to be fighting him with another of my guys for the heavyweight championship.

“Takam has shown he has the pedigree to be fighting for the championship. He’s been active, fought three times in the past 12 months and he looked good against Forrest, a fight he took on two weeks’ notice. He’s been in the gym training. He’s very disciplined and it would be great for him to get this opportunity. Carlos and were talking today and this will be one of the rare times where he would have time train. Most of the time he’s had his big fights on short notice.”

Arum said another opponent who had been considered was contender Oscar Rivas (26-1, 18 KOs), 33, of Montreal, who only loss came by decision in his last fight in July 2019 to Dillian Whyte.

“I discussed Oscar Rivas but the theory is he’s too small. Too small, too short,” Arum said of the 6-foot-1 Rivas compared to the 6-9 Fury.

[Ruthless-RKO]

If he's fighting in December, I hope the opponent is announced soon..

Rivas is out..

So if Kabayel and Takam are aware they are the leading candidates, they best be in the gym training already...

[maverick23]

If he's fighting in December, I hope the opponent is announced soon..

Rivas is out..

So if Kabayel and Takam are aware they are the leading candidates, they best be in the gym training already...

Meh. Neither are exciting fights. Takam hasn’t beaten anyone of note since being flattened by Del Boy (albeit Takam was probably winning the fight) and AJ.

Kabayel had a good win against an uninspired Chisora but has only fought 3 times in 3 years since against poor opposition.

Fury would comfortably handle either and neither fight would get me too interested.

[cormack]

neither takam or kabayel are going to be worth watching.

[Ruthless-RKO]

neither takam or kabayel are going to be worth watching.

Neither were Schwarz or Wallin.

[maverick23]

neither takam or kabayel are going to be worth watching.

Neither were Schwarz or Wallin.

Yeah and not many people bought them on PPV over here.

[ash.123]

neither takam or kabayel are going to be worth watching.

Neither were Schwarz or Wallin.

Or Seferi or Pianeta

[Ruthless-RKO]

neither takam or kabayel are going to be worth watching.

Neither were Schwarz or Wallin.

Yeah and not many people bought them on PPV over here.

UK? Plus it was daft o clock.

[Ruthless-RKO]

neither takam or kabayel are going to be worth watching.

Neither were Schwarz or Wallin.

Or Seferi or Pianeta

Seems like a patter..!

2 knock overs then a top opponent.

2 knock overs then a top opponent.

Although the Top opponent was the same guy..

So I think Fury is due 2 knock overs haha