Agit Kabayel has announced that he has withdrawn from the purse for an eliminator of the IBF heavyweight title against Martin Kabayel in what would have been a battle to determine the mandatory champion Daniel Dubois for his belt.
And Rafael reports that Kabaiel (25-0, 17 KOs) chose to go into a “different direction.” There is speculation that Kabaiel can be chosen as the next opponent of Dubuis for February without facing the danger Bakole (21-1, 16 KO).
Kabayel being roasted by fans
Fans on social media are roasting Kabayel for pulling out of the scholarship offer, seeing it as a case of bad nerves on his part, knowing what he was up against fighting the heavy Bakole. This guy is seen as a mixture of George Foreman and Sonny Liston, with the power he can generate on shots that are not thrown with a lot of speed, but that have a hard and overwhelming impact.
With this fight off the table, #4 IBF Bakole and #5 Zhilei Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KOs) are expected to be the next title eliminator to be ordered for Dubois’ International Boxing Federation title .
It’s understandable why Kabayel, 32, is opting to skip the IBF title eliminator against heavyweight Bakole if he can get a straight title shot against Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) on a card of the Riyadh Season and get a big payday. Upsetting Dubois, who can be hot and cold, would like Kabayel for a lucrative fight against Anthony Joshua or the winner of the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk 2 rematch.
Bakole, 31, is a dangerous puncher coming off a fifth-round knockout of America’s #1 hope, Jared Anderson, on August 3rd at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. He reduced Anderson to rubble, knocking him out three times in the fight, once in the first round and twice more in the fifth. This was part of His Excellency Turki Alalshikh’s Riyadh Season card which was headlined by Terence Crawford vs Israil Madrimov.
Zhang vs. Bakole Possible For IBF Eliminator
A fight between Chinese Olympian Zhang and Bakole would be fun for fans as both are slow, big and powerful. Zhang, 41, came up big, knocking out former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in the fifth round on June 1 in Riyadh.
Zhang’s weight was reduced to a more manageable 282 lbs for that fight from the 291.5 lbs he weighed in his 12-round unanimous decision loss to Joseph Parker in their previous fight on March 8 in Riyadh. As well as Gilgameshthe eternal man, Zhang is one of those fighters who defies age.
