Mike Coppinger reported on X that Turki Alalshikh plans to sit down with Usyk to discuss a Ring Magazine heavyweight title fight against Agit Kabayel later this year in Germany, if Usyk defeats Verhoeven on May 23 at the Pyramids of Giza.
“Turki Alalshikh plans to sit down with Oleksandr Usyk to discuss a Ring Magazine heavyweight title fight against Agit Kabayel later this year in Germany if Usyk defeats Rico Verhoeven on May 23 at the Pyramids of Giza,” said Mike Coppinger on X.
The proposed fight would put Usyk in with Kabayel, one of the few unbeaten heavyweights still waiting for a major shot. Kabayel has built his position with stoppage wins over Arslanbek Makhmudov, Frank Sanchez, Zhilei Zhang, and Damian Knyba.
Usyk still has to handle Verhoeven before any Kabayel talk becomes serious. That makes May 23 the first checkpoint. If Usyk wins, Germany could become the next landing spot for a major heavyweight title fight.
Turki Alalshikh has basically flipped the script on the old “if it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense” promoter logic. His focus seems to be much more about the Vision 2030 goals, using boxing to build global influence and brand authority rather than just chasing a domestic U.S. or UK gate.
By putting Usyk in with Kabayel in Germany, he’s expanding the footprint. Germany used to be a massive powerhouse for boxing. By bringing a Ring Magazine title fight there, he’s reclaiming a major market that has been relatively quiet compared to the Riyadh or London scenes lately.
Hosting the fight in Germany is a clear indicator that the target audience is local and European. While Germany has a massive boxing history (the Klitschko era), it doesn’t translate to a “must-watch” event for a fan in Manchester or Los Angeles unless they are deep in the boxing weeds.
If he only made Joshua vs. Fury over and over, people would call it a circus. Making the Usyk vs. Kabayel mandatory fight shows he’s serious about the sporting merit side of things, even if the casual fan in the States doesn’t know Kabayel yet.
Turki is willing to eat the cost of a fight that might not sell in the traditional sense just to keep the division moving and maintain his reputation as the guy who actually makes the best fight the best.
Read the full article here