BoxRec

A heavyweight unification bout between WBC champ Agit Kabayel and WBA champ Murat Gassiev is being explored for later this year, Kabayel’s promoter, Spencer Brown told The Ring’s @MikeCoppinger.

Imagine telling someone last year that Kabayel and Gassiev would fight a unification at heavyweight in 2026.
Kabayel should dog walk him, but if Gassiev actually becomea unified heavyweight champion, I'm going to lose it.

Sendo Takeshi wrote: ↑21 Jul 2026, 03:56 Imagine telling someone last year that Kabayel and Gassiev would fight a unification at heavyweight in 2026.
Kabayel should dog walk him, but if Gassiev actually becomea unified heavyweight champion, I'm going to lose it.

If Gassiev actually beats Kabayel it ain't like they've given it to him.

gilgamesh wrote: ↑21 Jul 2026, 09:18

Sendo Takeshi wrote: ↑21 Jul 2026, 03:56 Imagine telling someone last year that Kabayel and Gassiev would fight a unification at heavyweight in 2026.
Kabayel should dog walk him, but if Gassiev actually becomea unified heavyweight champion, I'm going to lose it.

If Gassiev actually beats Kabayel it ain't like they've given it to him.

Yeah, would be the Zayas situation. Got that first title gifted, but fought a legit guy for the second strap.

stay away from Gassiev's team.

Gassiev open to going to Germany for unification with Kabayel

Talks are likely to soon begin for a clash between Ring No. 9 Gassiev and No. 2 Kabayel, who holds the WBC title and has significant drawing power in his native Germany.

Gassiev has told The Ring he would happily go behind enemy lines for the chance to become unified heavyweight champion. “For me it doesn’t matter where I fight,” said Gassiev (34-2, 27 KOs). “Germany, neutral territory or the moon. It doesn’t matter.

“I never choose the place. I will go to Germany. I am a fighter and I don’t care where I fight.” Gassiev’s last fight took him back to Russia for the first time in five years as he stopped Peter Kadiru at Moscow’s VTB Arena in the first defense of his world title on July 11. “I was happy to fight in Moscow because it meant my mum could come,” he said. “It was not hard for her, only a two-hour flight, very easy. “It’s not the same flying to the U.S. or something like that because she is not young anymore. It was nice to have her there, but really, for a fight you need only you, your coach, your opponent, a referee and three judges. That’s it.” Gassiev and Kabayel have been elevated to full world champions following Oleksandr Usyk’s surprising decisions to vacate his three remaining sanctioning body titles. Gassiev had been the WBA’s ‘“regular” champion while Kabayel held the WBC’s interim title. The IBF, meanwhile, remains vacant.

Kabayel picked up the WBC strap with a sixth-round knockout of Zhilei Zhang in Saudi Arabia on February 22 last year before returning to Germany to defend it against Damian Knyba, whom he stopped in the third on January 10. That fight took place at Rudolf Weber-Arena in Oberhausen, Germany, and completely sold out within three days and his Queensberry promoters are keen to cultivate that support further. That may mean a unification with Gassiev next, but there is also a chance the Russian will look to book a voluntary defense before pressing ahead with Kabayel encounter. “Of course a unification fight is much better, but I have good people around me right now,” Gassiev said. “I believe in my coach 1,000 percent so if he says unification we will go for unification. But if he says defense, we will go for a defense. Maybe next year or maybe this year we fight Kabayel. Whenever it happens it’s a good fight. “But right now, I stay in my city with my family and there are no thoughts about boxing right now to be honest. I was in camp for six months so I need a rest mentally. If you don’t rest you can go down very quickly, and once you go down it’s hard to get up. “In the next two or three weeks we will start to talk. But right now, a little bit of a rest, no boxing. I’ll watch some soccer, play some soccer, go fishing and think about some other sports. “I'm focusing on my life, myself and Agit is focusing on his life. When we start talking, it’s on.”

Kabayel trying the easiest route to get anything. Not a fan of his career choices overall, despite having a good run of three fights previously. Beats Chisora in 2017 then faces 6 journeymen over 6 years before having an excellent 3 years demolishing 3 legitimate opponents. Follows that up with further inactivity waiting for a shot at Usyk which never happened and only to choose to face another lower level opponent in the mean time. Now he's looking at the easiest unification he can target when there's great fights out there against the other guys who will be champs by the time this fight happens. His inactivity and choice of opponents in 8 out of his last 12 fights, which span 9 years, have been woeful.

With the judging and refereeing in Germany, Gassiev would be foolish to fight Kabayel there.

Perkin Warbeck wrote: ↑31 Jul 2026, 11:30 With the judging and refereeing in Germany, Gassiev would be foolish to fight Kabayel there.

Gassiev could fight Kabayel in his Living Room, and he'll still get his ass kicked.

Perkin Warbeck wrote: ↑31 Jul 2026, 11:30 With the judging and refereeing in Germany, Gassiev would be foolish to fight Kabayel there.

Because the US doesn't have a long history of hometown decisions and blatant robberies...

Sendo Takeshi wrote: ↑31 Jul 2026, 12:32

Perkin Warbeck wrote: ↑31 Jul 2026, 11:30 With the judging and refereeing in Germany, Gassiev would be foolish to fight Kabayel there.

Because the US doesn't have a long history of hometown decisions and blatant robberies...

It should happen in Gassiev's home country of Russia which is known to be a leading nation in promoting fairness in sport

Sendo Takeshi wrote: ↑31 Jul 2026, 12:32

Perkin Warbeck wrote: ↑31 Jul 2026, 11:30 With the judging and refereeing in Germany, Gassiev would be foolish to fight Kabayel there.

Because the US doesn't have a long history of hometown decisions and blatant robberies...

The US is as bad as Germany by times for dishonest referees and judges favoring the home boxer. Some of the UK referees and judges are terrible too, although there are some honest ones.

joshj909 wrote: ↑31 Jul 2026, 12:55It should happen in Gassiev's home country of Russia which is known to be a leading nation in promoting fairness in sport

True. I've seen better, less biased officiating in Russia for the most part over the years than in Germany, the UK, and the USA.

joshj909 wrote: ↑31 Jul 2026, 12:55

Sendo Takeshi wrote: ↑31 Jul 2026, 12:32

Perkin Warbeck wrote: ↑31 Jul 2026, 11:30 With the judging and refereeing in Germany, Gassiev would be foolish to fight Kabayel there.

Because the US doesn't have a long history of hometown decisions and blatant robberies...

It should happen in Gassiev's home country of Russia which is known to be a leading nation in promoting fairness in sport

Absolutely. And Putin and Zelenskyy should sit together at ringside to celebrate the close relationship between their countries.

This is a truely terrible unification.... Still better than a non unification but still grim.

I cant belive moses didnt overpay bigtime for this. (i know he was commited to hrg, but honestly even as a regular belt this was smarter, but now as a "real belt"...

I can only assume there are plenty of people currantly throwing money at gassieve to be his first voulantary... (honestly AJ and Fury should both be looking at this should they have any doubt about there big fight coming up)...

This is a straight forward fight for Agit Kabayel 'any I would also back Tyson Fury and even Anthony Joshua to beat Murat Gassiev. I have never rated him very highly as a heavyweight fighter'.

Note: Agit Kabayel has been overrated by many in the boxing community in recent years 'but I do think stylistically, Murat Gassiev is actually quite a easy fight'.

Murat Gassiev was being out boxed by a version of Kubrat Pulev ''miles outside of his peak. Until he turned that fight around with his power'.

Gassiev has solid power, but not enough power to beat Agit Kabayel 'it will take more than just a single punch against the best Heavyweights in the division' etc.

Murat Gassiev invited to join 'home of the heavyweights'

Frank~Warren is ready to invite WBA champion Murat Gassiev into Queensberry’s “home of the heavyweights."

As it stands, Queensberry fighters Agit Kabayel and Daniel Dubois hold the WBC and WBO titles respectively while Moses Itauma and Filip Hrgovic, another two contracted stars, will fight for the vacant IBF belt in London on August 29.

That means the WBA strap held by Gassiev (34-2, 27 KOs) is the only one currently outside of the promotional stable.

Now, following tentative talks regarding a potential unification between Gassiev and Kabayel, promoter Warren has confirmed he would be open to doing a deal with the Russian, whose last two fights have headlined IBA Pro events.

When asked whether he would be looking to match Gassiev with a Queensberry heavyweight, Warren said: “Of course, We haven't got a problem doing that.

“At the moment, all our top guys are involved in fights. But of course, we’d love to get him in this part of the scene. He's a good fighter, a quality fighter. Why wouldn’t he want to come and get involved? We're the home of the heavyweights.”

Taking control of the heavyweight landscape has been one of Queensberry’s main ambitions over the last few years but Oleksandr Usyk’s dual victories over Tyson Fury meant a number of world titles have eluded them. However, when the The Ring champion decided to vacate all his sanctioning body belts earlier this year, Queensberry were able to capitalize.

For now, Gassiev can keep the WBA belt outside of their grasp but Warren insists Queensberry want to be the driving force behind a new undisputed champion, not a collection of different beltholders.

He said: “Who's top of the tree? Who's the guy? Who's going to wear the crown? We will find out. We'll make it happen.

“I think it will happen within the next 18 months to two years. Obviously belts have got to be fought for but we've got to get the governing bodies together to agree a unification program. That means mandatories might need to be pushed back and so forth. So there's a lot of things to be done.

"But one thing you cannot accuse us of is holding things up. We're making this division move. I don't think the heavyweight division’s had so many title fights on like this in succession for many, many, many years. And we're making it happen.

“Ultimately where we want to be is identifying who's the best out of these bunch of fighters and seeing who's going to hold the four belts and move on from there.”

"All our top guys are involved in fights"

Except Kabayel, who's sitting out as usual.

Kabayal versus Hrgovic seems like the best fight to make at this point.

It was Cool to see "Kabayal" go into the ring yesterday while "Hrgovic" was being interviewed, after his dramatic upset victory over the heavily favored U.K Superstar Boxer "Moises Ituama".

"Hrgovic" seemed to welcome the potential of that specific bout coming to fruition.
He seemed to not be interested in fighting "Frank Sanchez" next.
Probably that's wise. "Hrgovic" realizes that styles make fights and he has a good sense about who he'd do good against and a likewise sense of who he'd do, not good against.

"Ituama vs Torrez" would be quite interesting and probably the best choice opponent for "Ituama" to get a good solid bounce back victory against.
I'd be favoring "Ituama" in that bout.
Probably he'd win by Tko in the mid rounds.
It'd be quite a good action bout for a few rounds though.
For the record, I had picked "Ituama" to win versus "Hrgovic".

I was thinking, it goes to the 5th round at best, and actually I was telling myself I won't be surprised if "Ituama" was going to get a 1st round knockout or stoppage victory.
I really had that much regard for "Ituama" and disregard for "Hrgovic".
With "Hrgovic" I just simply didn't give him any chance, but he definitely proved me wrong, and many others as well.
The way he won was simply by way of resilience and tenacity and willpower.

And also by way of "Ituama" underestimating the tough and Wiley ole veteran Croatian Warrior, and not pacing himself properly either.
Just like Pauli stated, "Ituama" needed to start pacing himself in that 8th round instead of still trying to knockout the very durable "Hrgovic".