Beating Agit Kabayel is the key to unlocking every door for Zhilei Zhang

PATERSON, N.J. — The heavyweight division is very different in 2025 from the one in which Zhilei Zhang first emerged as one of its top players a couple years ago. When Zhang broke into the upper echelon of the heavyweight division in 2023 with his consecutive stoppages over the then-unbeaten Joe Joyce in the United Kingdom, the interim heavyweight belt he won was little more than an IOU that kept him waiting in a line that didn’t seem to move.

Now, after Oleksandr Usyk has exhausted his rematches with Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury, going 4-0 with his two biggest rivals of this era, the logjam on title opportunities seems to have been cleared.

Now, Zhang will have a clear path to the world title opportunity that had eluded him during that run, if he can get past the unbeaten Agit Kabayel. Zhang will meet the unbeaten Kabayel this Saturday for the WBC interim heavyweight title at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 

Instead of thinking about what the belt could do for him, Zhang has just one focus heading into the next “Riyadh Season” card.

“Without the victory there is no interim title, there is no world title. My whole focus is on Kabayel and getting the win,” Zhang, 27-2-1 (22 KOs), tells BoxingScene through translator Kurt Li.

“As far as what happens with the title and mandatory position, we’ll see after the fight.”

The importance of remaining focused on the task at hand is a lesson the Chinese southpaw has learned the hard way. After winning the interim WBO title against Joyce, Zhang caught himself looking too far into the future heading into his clash with Joseph Parker last March. Despite scoring two knockdowns, Zhang was reduced to looking just for the one punch he thought could end the fight. Instead, he ended up getting outhustled down the stretch and losing a majority decision – and his belt – to Parker.

Instead of himself fighting WBO heavyweight titleholder Daniel Dubois this weekend, it’s Parker who gets that opportunity higher up the card.

“I don’t want to be overconfident; that’s what happened after the Joe Joyce fight,” admitted Zhang.

“In the second half of the [Parker] fight he adjusted his strategy and was successful. I was trying to get him but I kept missing my target. On top of that I kept getting countered. With the mentality of I’m holding two knockdowns, I thought I got him and I took my foot off the gas.”

The task of ensuring that Zhang keeps his foot on the gas, both throughout training at True Warriors Boxing in Paterson, New Jersey, and inside the ring in Riyadh, falls to head trainer Shaun George, a former light heavyweight contender from Brooklyn, New York turned rising boxing coach. 

He knows that his fighter cannot afford a letdown similar to the one he experienced two fights ago.

“We messed up with the Joseph Parker fight. We worked hard, we trained hard, we were in the gym, we were running the miles but I think he underestimated him a little bit. Then when he caught him with the first knockdown in the third round he thought, ‘I’m gonna end this fight soon.’ So he kept looking for that one shot. Parker’s a warrior that knows how to make adjustments in the fight, and [Zhilei] couldn’t make the adjustment back,” said George.

Zhang gained a measure of momentum back in his last fight last June, when he scored a brutal fifth-round knockout of former titleholder Deontay Wilder, banishing him from the realm of top contenders. The win revived excitement in his prospects of becoming the first Chinese fighter to become heavyweight champion, and allayed concerns that, at age 41, he was a spent force with a brief peak.

But while Wilder was on the slide after losses in three of his previous four fights, Kabayel, 25-0 (17 KOs) is coming into his peak at age 32. Kabayel rose up out of the obscurity of the European scene with two significant wins over previously unbeaten big men on Riyadh cards, demolishing Arslanbek Makhmudov in four rounds back in December of 2023, and then knocking out Frank Sanchez in seven rounds in May of 2024.

Those victories are why Kabayel is a slight betting favorite with virtually all of the online betting parlors.

“This whole training camp he’s been determined because he’s the underdog going into this fight again,” said George.

“Zhilei is not Makhmudov and Zhilei is not Frank Sanchez. Zhilei has a whole other style. It’s hard to get ready for Zhilei. He’s a 280lbs, 6-foot-6 southpaw. I’m not worried about what Agit Kabayel is doing; every single round we’re looking for a knockout. From round one to round 12, that’s our job and mission.”

Zhang says he believes Kabayel will be cautious early on, similar to the way he fought Makhmudov, who was also a physically larger man with a big punch.

“Kabayel has a great style, if you look at his previous fights. My prediction is the first couple of rounds he’s going to try to move around the ring and download information. In the third round he’s probably going to attack. But you never know until fight night. Whatever he brings to the table, we’ll be ready,” said Zhang.

Still, even with Zhang and team focused on the task at hand, it’s hard not to look at what lies ahead should Zhang deliver another “big bang” performance. A win would make Zhilei the most eligible challenger for any of the belts.

“When we get past this fight, we want Usyk,” said George. “He’s the heavyweight champion of the world. Who knows what happens with that. If not Usyk, then we want the winner of Parker and Dubois. Zhilei deserves a title shot, he earned the right to fight for a title.”

Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.