Zhilei Zhang to fight Agit Kabayel for Interim title, with Anthony Joshua eligible to box the winner

boxing Monday 2 December 2024 10:19, UK

The WBC will sanction Zhilei Zhang versus Agit Kabayel for an Interim heavyweight title, and Anthony Joshua would be eligible to fight the winner for the belt.

The WBC's full world heavyweight title is one of the three belts, along with the WBA and WBO championships, that Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury will fight for when they rematch on December 21, live on Sky Sports Box Office.

Zhang has already held the WBO Interim heavyweight title, which he lost to New Zealand's Joseph Parker. But Zhang bounced back from that to defeat former WBC world champion Deontay Wilder in June.

Kabayel is an impressive unbeaten heavyweight, who stopped Frank Sanchez and Arslanbek Makhmudov in his two most recent bouts.

"The WBC has received a formal request to sanction such fight for the Interim title and the WBC will accept to sanction it," the body's president, Mauricio Sulaiman told Sky Sports.

"Why? Because we have done everything possible for the past several years to reach the ultimate, great fights in each weight category, especially in the heavyweights.

"All this time we have been perfectly clear and transparent that the WBC will not impose any mandatory that goes against having the ultimate undisputed champion because they're fighting the best available.

"There's no better fight than Usyk-Fury. So with that fighting happening, and then the possibilities for the future, we have accepted the No 2 and the No 3 to fight for the Interim title.

"Keep them active and keep the division having the best fights possible."

Usyk beat Fury in May to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. He had to vacate the IBF title to pursue his December 21 rematch with Fury, leaving Britain's Daniel Dubois to pick up that vacant belt.

Sulaiman said: "For the winner of December 21 there's many options. Why should anyone get in the way of a third fight, or the fight again for undisputed [against Dubois] or any high-level event while we can accommodate the champion, [and have a] fight for an Interim title where the winner is going to be a high-level sensational possibility?

"So we're all for having undisputed champions."

The Zhang-Kabayel winner won't just be in the frame to, eventually, challenge the holder of the full WBC heavyweight championship. That Interim title could also offer Anthony Joshua a route back to world level.

Joshua, a former unified champion, was knocked out in September when he fought Dubois for the IBF belt.

But he is still rated at No 6 by the WBC and would be eligible to challenge the Zhang-Kabayel winner for the WBC Interim title.

"Absolutely," Sulaiman said. "That's an opening of possibilities for more fights to continue to take place."

Don't miss Usyk vs Fury II on December 21 live on Sky Sports Box Office