Oleksandr Usyk may have escaped with his titles against Rico Verhoeven, but WBC interim heavyweight champion Agit Kabayel believes age and Rico’s awkward style exposed problems that could carry into their expected showdown later this year.
Kabayel, who is viewed as 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 footage available to study. The unbeaten German heavyweight said that uncertainty played a major role in Usyk’s difficult night in Egypt.
“I think he is old,” said Kabayel to InsideRingShow at The Ring about Usyk. “He’s 39 years old, but I think Rico had a very unorthodox style. This was hard for Usyk. You can’t watch the fights from Rico. He didn’t understand what the plan was from Rico.
“I think this is why the situation was different for Usyk. When he fights with other guys, he has so many fights 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 during Saturday’s “Glory in Giza” card at the Pyramids before stopping Verhoeven in the 11th round. Two judges had the fight even entering the round, while another had Rico ahead 96-94 before the finish.
Kabayel (27-0, 19 KOs) was ringside for the fight and came face-to-face with Usyk afterward in what looked like the beginning of the promotion for a future heavyweight title clash. 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 stoppage wins over Frank Sanchez, Zhilei Zhang, and Damian Knyba. He believes a fight against Usyk in Germany would create an atmosphere unlike anything seen recently in heavyweight boxing.
“I think the best place is Düsseldorf 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 big 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 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 AM
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