{"id":615057,"date":"2026-04-19T19:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T19:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/615057\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T19:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T19:40:11","slug":"agit-kabayel-waits-for-usyk-verhoeven-before-deciding-next-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/615057\/","title":{"rendered":"Agit Kabayel waits for Usyk-Verhoeven before deciding next steps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 33-year-old should be all guns blazing towards a big summer bout, but instead after headlining Oberhausen&#8217;s Rudolf Weber-Arena in January, momentum has again stalled for The Ring&#8217;s No. 2-rated heavyweight. Despite a stuttering opening round, he got the job done to <a class=\"underline text-text-primary font-medium hover:text-blue-70 transition-colors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringmagazine.com\/news\/agit-kabayel-stops-damian-knyba-early-for-happy-germany-homecoming-7aniRyiC8qBcePNYEs0fKK\">scyth down Poland&#8217;s Damian Knyba in three on January 10<\/a>.<a class=\"underline text-text-primary font-medium hover:text-blue-70 transition-colors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringmagazine.com\/news\/agit-kabayel-targets-oleksandr-usyk-fabio-wardley-next-send-me-location-75wCBuPg10K2mINOGN0lTY\">He made sure to call out<\/a> Ring and unified king <a class=\"underline text-text-primary font-medium hover:text-blue-70 transition-colors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringmagazine.com\/fighters\/oleksandr-usyk-5mLRBwodsK5tf2Rb5H6yt6\">Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> as well as WBO beltholder <a class=\"underline text-text-primary font-medium hover:text-blue-70 transition-colors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringmagazine.com\/fighters\/fabio-wardley-5OCukfQDtRQBgv2lJXItYD\">Fabio Wardley<\/a> post-fight, the division&#8217;s two full titleholders at a time where elite heavyweights are few and far between as the generational shift from yesteryear to the new, unproven youngsters continues to take centre stage.<a class=\"underline text-text-primary font-medium hover:text-blue-70 transition-colors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringmagazine.com\/news\/hrgovic-not-buying-itauma-hype-believes-hell-beat-him-3ug3AX7scuVE5CC60j9EE8\">Filip Hrgovic isn&#8217;t yet convinced by his minerals<\/a>, though the bullish Croatian features among several moving pieces taking shape over the next six weeks. Kabayel has already rejected the prospect of facing WBC&#8217;s No. 1-rated contender Lawrence Okolie, who faces Tony Yoka atop Queensberry&#8217;s April 25 show in Paris, France.Later that same night, Jarrell Miller (27-1-2, 22 KOs) looks to end Lenier Pero&#8217;s perfect 13-0 run in their WBA title eliminator. On May 9, Wardley makes the first defense of his WBO crown against former IBF titlist Dubois, whose first career reset began with a character-building tenth-round stoppage of Miller in December 2023. He looks to rebound after yet another stoppage defeat by Usyk in a fight <a class=\"underline text-text-primary font-medium hover:text-blue-70 transition-colors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringmagazine.com\/news\/7lXpfFBKPxfNYaNNM5ZS3v\">many hope the new champion wins, and does well<\/a>.Kabayel was close, on more than one occasion, to snaring Dubois himself, though was <a class=\"underline text-text-primary font-medium hover:text-blue-70 transition-colors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringmagazine.com\/news\/team-wardley-hold-dubois-fight-talks-kabayel-to-return-vs-british-opponent-3yo11uCVAqrf5AUWfNuBPr\">also said to be boxing a British opponent<\/a> in another Germany homecoming next month. As time has passed, it&#8217;s proven not the case.&#8221;We talked with Frank Warren and Spencer Brown, the plan is now to wait for Usyk-Verhoeven. I&#8217;m just waiting for the situation to sort itself out, Usyk will fight me or vacate the title, that [waiting] is the best option for me and then the results will show themselves,&#8221; Kabayel told <a class=\"underline text-text-primary font-medium hover:text-blue-70 transition-colors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringmagazine.com\">The Ring<\/a> when asked about a return timeline.&#8221;We have a small plan, back out in September or October with an organization in Germany,&#8221; he continued, having traveled to London in support of his &#8216;big brother&#8217; Tyson Fury, who <a class=\"underline text-text-primary font-medium hover:text-blue-70 transition-colors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringmagazine.com\/news\/fury-threatens-retirement-again-if-joshua-avoids-fighting-him-now-6sEHVkvpKK2orFJxeRQXVv\">doubled down on a desire to only fight Anthony Joshua<\/a> or Usyk next after cruising to a 12-round decision win over Arslanbek Makhmudov last weekend.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Experiences like this push me even more to bring major fight nights back to Germany,&#8221; was part of a post Kabayel shared on Instagram, as he wonders aloud when he&#8217;ll finally get an opportunity for his crowning moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 33-year-old should be all guns blazing towards a big summer bout, but instead after headlining Oberhausen&#8217;s Rudolf&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[72640,703,184736,711,49,48,1855,44,82,1134],"class_list":["post-615057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-object-object","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-articles","tag-boxing-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-heavyweight","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-the-ring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}