With Usyk vs Verhoeven still fresh on people’s minds, fight fans are still picking their jaws up off the floor — at how well Verhoeven performed or, depending on who you ask, how poor Usyk looked. As a result, the question on everyone’s lips is the same: what is Usyk’s next fight? Two options appear to be on the table. Does Usyk give Rico a rematch? While a rematch clause hasn’t been confirmed, Turki Alalshikh has certainly ignited that talk, and he has the tools to incentivise it. Alternatively, does Usyk face his mandatory challenger — and not just any mandatory. Agit Kabayel, the WBC interim champion, has been waiting a long time for his shot.
Usyk’s Next Fight Should Never Have Been a Crossover with a Title on the Line
Regardless of how competitive the fight turned out to be, last weekend’s event should never have taken place with a world title on the line. Cross-over fights frustrate boxing fans at the best of times, widely regarded as diluting the sport. However, when world titles are at play, it takes things to a whole new level.
Having the greatest heavyweight of our generation — a unified champion — opt for a big-money spectacle instead of fighting the best and most deserving in the division is hard to take. Especially when he is in the twilight of his career, it feels like a sad reflection of the sport right now. Absolutely no one can blame Usyk for chasing an “easy” payday, with some reports putting the figure at $100,000,000. Nevertheless, that is precisely where the governing bodies should step in to keep the sport in order.
Agit Kabayel and the WBC Heavyweight Mandatory Saga
This is where the real controversy begins. Agit Kabayel isn’t just another contender forming an orderly queue. The unbeaten German stands at 27-0 with 19 knockouts, currently ranks No.2 heavyweight in the world by The Ring, and has now held the WBC interim heavyweight title for 458 days. Furthermore, Kabayel earned his mandatory position by stopping Frank Sanchez in a WBC final eliminator in May 2024, meaning he has effectively been on the WBC mandatory route for over two years.
During that period, Usyk fought Tyson Fury, Daniel Dubois, and now Rico Verhoeven — all while Kabayel waited patiently and called out the Ukrainian. Since Kabayel first entered the mandatory picture, he has watched Usyk take all three of those fights against other opponents instead of facing him.
What makes the situation even more controversial is that the WBC has had Kabayel in line throughout all of this, yet still sanctioned the Verhoeven spectacle for the WBC heavyweight title. Not the undisputed championship. Not the IBF or WBA belts. Just the WBC title. Sanctioning bodies exist precisely to protect the sporting structure of boxing. Instead, once again, the WBC appears all too willing to exploit the flexibility built into its own rulebook when the money becomes big enough.
The WBC Has Previous — and It’s Not Just Kabayel Who Has Suffered
This isn’t paranoia — it’s precedent. Dillian Whyte held the WBC’s No.1 heavyweight ranking for 1,634 days before finally getting his shot at Tyson Fury in April 2022. That wait became almost symbolic of the WBC’s willingness to let mandatories drift when bigger fights or politics got in the way. David Benavidez has lived through a similar frustration at super-middleweight, spending over two years as Canelo Alvarez’s No.1 WBC contender and becoming mandatory in 2023, only to watch that fight fail to materialise.
By comparison, the IBF’s no-nonsense approach resulted in Usyk being stripped of his IBF belt when he opted to rematch Fury — although he later regained it from Daniel Dubois.
Usyk’s Next Fight: Rematch or Mandatory?
So what now? The unified king of the heavyweight division must surely give Kabayel his chance at gold, and the WBC need to be seen to make it happen. What would you rather see — the rematch with the King of Kickboxing, or Kabayel the Mandatory Man finally getting his moment?