Multiple outlets report that WBC heavyweight champion Agit Kabayel will meet undefeated Nelson Hysa on November 28th at Dusseldorf, Germany’s 50,000-capacity Merkur Spiel-Arena.
Hysa (25-0, 23 KO) turned pro in 2022 at the age of 37 and has spent his pro career touring Europe while pausing to squash incompetents every couple months. He’s been part of the Queensberry family for a bit, most recently taking out Thomas Narmo on last month’s Itauma-Hrgovic show with a right cross that, to put it charitably,
did not appear to merit the reaction from Narmo that it elicited.
Hysa subsequently confronted Kabayel (27-0, 19 KO), who hasn’t fought since trucking Damian Knyba in January, only for Frank Warren to allege that “The Albanian Eagle” pulled out of the planned contest at the eleventh hour. It seems he’s since changed his mind and will indeed take the title opportunity he’s received despite appearing nowhere in the WBC’s rankings.
To put it bluntly, Hysa is not the man to end Kabayel’s reign of tummy-punching terror. The most charitable reading of this matchup is as a means to keep him busy while Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley settle their differences next month and pave the way for what could be an electric title unification. As others point out, it’s also a test of Kabayel’s star power; Germany’s hosted its share of big-money heavyweight tussles, but not since the Klitschkos hung ‘em up.
It’s not like Dubois or Wardley would have to worry about the infamous German judging, either; you really see any fight involving these three going the distance?
