Tony Yoka loses his opponent!

Change of program for Tony Yoka! The 2016 Olympic heavyweight champion, now 33 years old, was due to compete in his 18th professional fight on January 10, in Oberhausen against Agit Kabayel, WBC interim heavyweight champion. But the German boxer decided to change his opponent.

He will indeed challenge the Pole Damian Knyba to defend his belt. The fight was officially presented this Thursday in Düsseldorf. The contract between Yoka and Kabayel was signed on October 16, but the one who is ranked No. 3 in the world heavyweight according to the reference site BoxRec (Yoka is 32nd) preferred to break it. According to The Teamthe German boxer’s clan preferred to face a Pole in order to attract more spectators.

Yoka: “I understand that Kabayel does not want to lose his belt”

Tony Yoka hopes that his new promoter Franck Warren will offer him a new high-caliber opponent quickly, even though he really wanted to test himself against Kabayel. “I learned a few days ago that Kabayel was no longer very keen to face me,” Yoka told the sports daily last week. I understand that Kabayel does not want to lose his belt while he is waiting for a fight against Alexandre Usyk (the number 1 heavyweight, editor’s note). But in this case, you shouldn’t offer me a fight. (…) As I don’t want to attract the wrath of the French by saying that I’m going to beat him, I’ll just say that I want to box him, because he’s the real number 1 behind Usyk. »

A 14-3 record for Yoka

After winning the first eleven fights of his career, not necessarily against formidable opponents, Tony Yoka lost three in a row in 2022 and 2023. After the end of his big contract with Canal+he had fought (and won) two fights anonymously in England last year, before returning to Paris last May and beating the Russian Arslan Yallyev by unanimous decision of the judges. The 2016 Olympic champion still has great ambitions, but we will still have to wait.