Agit Kabayel‘s first fight as WBC champion is around the corner, with a win hopefully setting up a unification bout.
Kabayel became the WBC Interim heavyweight champion when he knocked out Zhilei Zhang last February and was in hot pursuit of full champion Usyk ever since. His solitary outing since was a defence of his Interim strap against Damian Knyba.
Despite fight fans being keen to see how Usyk fared against such a dangerous body puncher, and Kabayel being called as the mandatory chellgners, the Ukrainian instead vacated his world titles.
Kabayel was then elevated to full WBC heavyweight world champion – making him the first German heavyweight ruler since Max Schmeling 94 years ago.
Now, almost three months after being upgraded to world champion, the big body-puncher is on the verge of announcing his first title defence, targeting a November fight date in Germany before a planned unification with newly-crowned IBF champion Filip Hrgovic, as per Mike Coppinger.
“Agit Kabayel is expected to have his first WBC heavyweight title defense finalized by the end of this week for November in Germany, Kabayel’s manager, Spencer Brown, tells Ring Magazine.
“After that, the plan is to pursue a unification with Filip Hrgovic next year.”
Hrgovic captured the IBF belt last month with a victory over Moses Itauma and now has a pre-agreed mandatory defence against Frank Sanchez that he must deal with.
When Kabayel’s next bout takes place in Germany, it will be the first heavyweight world title contest in his homeland in over a decade, with Tyson Fury’s fabled 2015 win over Wladimir Klitschko being the last occasion in which a heavyweight belt was up for grabs on German soil.
The champion was confronted by Nelson Hysa recently in the moments after the Albanian’s knockout win over Thomas Narmo. Hysa made his case for a shot at the belt, but is not currently ranked within the WBC’s top fifteen.
