Oleksandr Usyk may have escaped with his titles against Rico Verhoeven, but interim WBC heavyweight champion Agit Kabayel believes age and Rico’s awkward style have exposed problems that could come in their expected showdown later this year.
Kabayel, who is considered the likely next challenger for Usyk’s WBC, WBA and IBF belts, said the 39-year-old champion struggled to prepare for Verhoeven because there was almost no boxing material available to study. The unbeaten German heavyweight said uncertainty played a big part in Usyk’s difficult night in Egypt.
“I think he’s old,” Kabayel told InsideRingShow The Ring about Usyk. “He is 39 years old, but I think Rico had a very unorthodox style. It was difficult for Usyk. You cannot see the fights of Rico. He did not understand what the plan of Rico was.
“I think that’s why the situation was different for Usyk. When he fights with other guys, he has so many fights that he can watch, and he can make a game plan for the fights. I think that was a problem for Usyk.”
Usyk (25-0, 16 KOs) looked unusually vulnerable on Saturday’s “Glory in Giza” card at the Pyramids before stopping Verhoeven in the 11th round. Two judges entered the fight even going into the round, while another had Rico leading 96-94 before the end.
Kabayel (27-0, 19 KOs) was up for the fight and then came face-to-face with Usyk in what appeared to be the beginning of the build-up to a future heavyweight title fight. Turki Alalshikh has already publicly backed the idea of staging Usyk-Kabayel in a stadium in Germany before revisiting a possible Rico rematch.
The 33-year-old Kabayel has quietly built one of the strongest runs in the heavyweight division with wins over Frank Sanchez, Zhilei Zhang and Damian Knyba. He believes a fight against Usyk in Germany will create an atmosphere unlike anything seen in heavyweight boxing recently.
“I think the best place is Dusseldorf in the stadium,” Kabayel said. “I think we have a place for 70,000 people. We have a lot of Ukrainian people here. We also have a very large Kurdish community here.
“In Germany, my last fight, we sold out the arena in four or five days. All the people from the UK, people who have been working in boxing for 20 or 30 years, said to us: ‘We’ve never seen an atmosphere like this.’
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Last updated on 2026/05/27 at 11:10
