Agit Kabayel Eyes Heavyweight Unification After Hysa Title Defense

Agit Kabayel is unbeaten at 27-0 with 19 knockouts, and he wants every piece of heavyweight gold on the planet. But the 34-year-old German isn't getting ahead of himself — first comes Nelson Hysa, in the opening defense of his WBC title, at Dusseldorf's 55,000-capacity Merkur Spiel-Arena on November 28.

It's the first world title fight of Kabayel's career, and he's framed what comes after it in plain terms: a unification bout in 2027. Speaking to Queensberry Promotions, Kabayel said his only focus right now is Hysa, but that his dream is to collect all the belts once that job is done.

How He Got Here

Kabayel's path to full champion took a strange route. Back in January he defended his WBC Interim strap with a third-round knockout of Poland's Damian Knyba in Oberhausen, a result that looked like it was steering him toward Oleksandr Usyk.

That fight never materialized. After Usyk turned in an underwhelming win over Rico Verhoeven, the Ukrainian vacated all three of his heavyweight titles. Kabayel was elevated to full WBC champion — gold handed over rather than won, which is exactly why this Hysa fight matters so much to him.

A belt collected in the boardroom still needs defending in the ring. Beating Hysa is how Kabayel starts proving he's a real champion rather than a beneficiary of someone else's retirement plans.

The Unification Math

The rest of the heavyweight picture is unusually crowded, which plays into Kabayel's ambitions. Daniel Dubois holds the WBO title at 23-3 (22 KO) and defends it in a rematch with Fabio Wardley later this month, after stopping him by TKO in the 11th round the first time around.

Filip Hrgovic took the IBF belt with a win over Moses Itauma in August. And the WBA strap is up for grabs in December when Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua finally collide — Joshua rebuilding at 29-4 (26 KO) after a sixth-round knockout of Jake Paul.

So there are three other champions and three other belts, all of them potentially available in 2027. Kabayel says he'll take on any of those names. That's a bold statement for a man who hasn't yet defended his own title once.

What's at Stake in Dusseldorf

Hysa is the obstacle nobody's really talking about, which is how upsets happen. Kabayel's 19 knockouts in 27 fights point to a fighter who finishes when the opening appears, but an unbeaten record is a fragile thing — one bad night and the unification talk evaporates.

The event carries weight beyond the matchup. It's the first heavyweight world title contest on German soil since Fury outpointed Wladimir Klitschko at the same venue over a decade ago, and tickets are reportedly moving fast.

If Kabayel comes through clean, he enters 2027 as the legitimate WBC champion with a stadium night behind him and a shortlist of unification targets. If he slips, the entire blueprint collapses. For now, the dream stays a dream — and Hysa stands directly in front of it.