Joshua to meet Zhang, Kabayel winner for the interim heavyweight title

The WBC will sanction Zhilei Zhang versus Agit Kabayel for an interim heavyweight title, with former world champion, Anthony Joshua, meeting the winner for the belt, reports Sky Sports.

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.

Zhang has already held the WBO Interim heavyweight title, which he lost to New Zealand’s Joseph Parker. Zhang, however, 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 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