Bob Arum has revealed the frontrunners to face Tyson Fury in his UK homecoming fight on Saturday December 5.
Fury is set to return to the ring at London’s Royal Albert Hall after his planned trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder was called off.
Arum, who promotes Fury in the United States, says the two likeliest candidates right now are Frenchman Carlos Takam and German Agit Kabayel.
The 88-year-old Hall of Famer told BoxingScene: “He’s deciding on an opponent… I’m not doing a bus boy.
“Fury should beat Takam but Takam is at least known and he has been on ESPN. And he looked pretty good in the last fight.
“The other guy (Kabayel) is undefeated and he has fought some fairly decent guys. I haven’t come up with anybody else.”
Neither man is expected to set the pulses racing, but Fury is keen to fight before the end of 2020, and tune up for that potential mega match with Anthony Joshua next summer.
The 39-year-old Takam (39-5-1) has been in with the likes of Joshua, Joseph Parker and Dereck Chisora. But he is seen as a durable and credible opponent rather than a major threat to that Fury vs Joshua dream fight.
The 28-year-old Kabayel meanwhile is unbeaten at 20-0. The biggest victory of his career was probably a majority points decision over the aforementioned Chisora back in 2017.
Since then he has fought only three times, against unimpressive opposition. He has failed to really push his career forward towards elite heavyweight level.
Fury’s homecoming adds further lustre to a stacked heavyweight schedule in the final quarter of 2020.
Other huge fights include Oleksandr Usyk vs Chisora on October 31, the big Daniel Dubois vs Joe Joyce domestic dust-up on November 28 and Joshua’s world title defence against Kubrat Pulev on December 12.
