{"id":697581,"date":"2026-05-27T09:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T09:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/697581\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T09:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T09:29:08","slug":"verhoeven-rematch-or-kabayel-fight-wbc-confirms-what-usyk-must-do-next-to-keep-belt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/697581\/","title":{"rendered":"Verhoeven rematch or Kabayel fight: WBC confirms what Usyk must do next to keep belt"},"content":{"rendered":"

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has confirmed whether he will honour Agit Kabayel<\/a>\u2019s mandatory position in the wake of Oleksandr Usyk<\/a>\u2019s controversial triumph over Rico Verhoeven.<\/p>\n

Usyk retained his WBC world title<\/a> on Saturday, yet many felt that professional boxing novice Verhoeven was wrongfully stopped in round 11.<\/p>\n

Prior to their showdown, the Dutch kickboxer was largely dismissed as a worthy challenger, mainly because he lacked the experience and credentials to justify a heavyweight title shot.<\/p>\n

His only other professional boxing match came in 2014, when he scored a second-round finish over an opponent who later retired with an 0-6 record.<\/p>\n

Yet despite being an overwhelming underdog, Verhoeven gave Usyk a surprisingly competitive contest and even managed to build a slight lead on one of the judges\u2019 scorecards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old was then ultimately stopped in round 11, where referee Mark Lyson called a halt shortly after Verhoeven survived a heavy knockdown.<\/p>\n

In response, many have suggested that the stoppage came too early, questioning why the referee waved it off at the sound of the bell.<\/p>\n

But regardless of this reaction, Sulaiman has told Pro Boxing Fans<\/a> that Verhoeven will not be permitted to leapfrog WBC \u2018interim\u2019 champion Kabayel in his pursuit of a second title shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cKabayel is the mandatory contender [to Usyk\u2019s belt]. [But] Rico is going to get ranked [by the WBC], for sure. And he deserves to fight again for the WBC world title.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a clash between Usyk and Kabayel likely to be ordered by the WBC, perhaps Verhoeven can gain further experience and eventually demand a rematch with the Ukrainian.<\/p>\n

Either way, many will be intrigued to see whether he can become a genuine heavyweight contender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has confirmed whether he will honour Agit Kabayel\u2019s mandatory position in the wake of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-697581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}