Gassiev has told The Ring he would happily go behind enemy lines for the chance to become unified heavyweight champion.
“For me it doesn’t matter where I fight,” said Gassiev (34-2, 27 KOs). “Germany, neutral territory or the moon. It doesn’t matter.
“I never choose the place. I will go to Germany. I am a fighter and I don’t care where I fight.”
Gassiev’s last fight took him back to Russia for the first time in five years as he stopped Peter Kadiru at Moscow’s VTB Arena in the first defense of his world title on July 11.
“I was happy to fight in Moscow because it meant my mum could come,” he said. “It was not hard for her, only a two-hour flight, very easy.
“It’s not the same flying to the U.S. or something like that because she is not young anymore. It was nice to have her there, but really, for a fight you need only you, your coach, your opponent, a referee and three judges. That’s it.”
Gassiev and Kabayel have been elevated to full world champions following Oleksandr Usyk’s surprising decisions to vacate his three remaining sanctioning body titles. Gassiev had been the WBA’s ‘“regular” champion while Kabayel held the WBC’s interim title. The IBF, meanwhile, remains vacant.
Kabayel picked up the WBC strap with a sixth-round knockout of Zhilei Zhang in Saudi Arabia on February 22 last year before returning to Germany to defend it against Damian Knyba, whom he stopped in the third on January 10.
That fight took place at Rudolf Weber-Arena in Oberhausen, Germany, and completely sold out within three days and his Queensberry promoters are keen to cultivate that support further.
That may mean a unification with Gassiev next, but there is also a chance the Russian will look to book a voluntary defense before pressing ahead with Kabayel encounter.
“Of course a unification fight is much better, but I have good people around me right now,” Gassiev said.
“I believe in my coach 1,000 percent so if he says unification we will go for unification. But if he says defense, we will go for a defense. Maybe next year or maybe this year we fight Kabayel. Whenever it happens it’s a good fight.
“But right now, I stay in my city with my family and there are no thoughts about boxing right now to be honest. I was in camp for six months so I need a rest mentally. If you don’t rest you can go down very quickly, and once you go down it’s hard to get up.
“In the next two or three weeks we will start to talk. But right now, a little bit of a rest, no boxing. I’ll watch some soccer, play some soccer, go fishing and think about some other sports.
“I'm focusing on my life, myself and Agit is focusing on his life. When we start talking, it’s on.”
