Following the collapse of Anthony Joshua’s fight with Dillian Whyte, the heavyweight champion is now set to engage former sparring partner Agit Kabayel, News About Nigeria reports.
On Tuesday, Eddie Hearn confirmed that Joshua’s match with Whyte has collapsed over money issues but in a recent update on Wednesday [today], Hearn told Boxing Social that Joshua will potentially, fight Agit Kabayel his former partner.
Hearn who is Joshua’s promoter is hoping to get his client engage in a fight to prepare him for the much talked about December bout with Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia.
Speaking about the collapse of Whyte’s fight, Hearn said “We made him an offer, which they made clear was nowhere near their expectations.
“Quite honestly there were very little negotiations after that,” stating that “He never asked for £10million, I’m not sure where that [false rumour] came from, but that’s not the case.”
He continued; “AJ’s gonna fight Deontay Wilder in December, that’s our 100 percent focus.
“So he needs a fight against someone who is going to allow him to work on everything he’s been working on with Derrick James.
“There’s no point fighting a fight against someone he’s gonna take out in a round.
“It’s difficult to fight an elite, top-three or top-five guy when you’re fighting Deontay Wilder four months later.
“So we’re in a little bit of a difficult position, it is what it is. We want him to fight, I don’t think Saudi want him to fight, because they want him to be ready for Deontay Wilder in December”, he explained.
However, Hearn is sanguine that Joshua will still have a fight for August 12 as talks with potential opponents are advancing, while Agit Kabayel’s name is top on the list.
“But we all feel as a team that it would be beneficial for his preparation to have that fight in August,”
“Kabayel was the European champion, he’s top 15.
“He’s on a list of four or five that it could be, but we need to close it out this weekend really if he’s going to fight on August 12,” Hearn explained.
Kabayel is a German heavyweight fighter whose best win came when he outboxed Derek Chisora in 2017.
At 30, he remains unbeaten at 23-0 (15 KOs). He was once AJ’s fighting partner.
