{"id":289758,"date":"2025-11-29T13:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T13:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/289758\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T13:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T13:41:07","slug":"interim-heavyweight-champion-says-hes-ready-to-take-on-oleksandr-usyk-for-the-full-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/289758\/","title":{"rendered":"Interim heavyweight champion says he&#8217;s ready to take on Oleksandr Usyk for the full title"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Now no longer the undisputed heavyweight champion, fans are wondering who <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/oleksandr-usyk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> will fight next.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2023\/feb\/06\/oleksandr-usyk-interview-ukraine-world-heavyweight-boxing-champion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The Ukrainian recently vacated his WBO world title<\/a>, prompting the sanctioning body to elevate Interim belt-holder Fabio Wardley to full champion.<\/p>\n<p>Usyk, 24-0 (15 KOs), turns 39 in January but showed no signs of slowing in the summer when he made light work of Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Having beaten Dubois, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua \u2014 all twice \u2014 the list of worthwhile challengers is beginning to shrink. Moses Itauma may eventually emerge as his successor, but across Europe another contender believes he offers a compelling option for the unified champion.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/agit-kabayel-stops-zhilei-big-bang-zhang-in-round-six\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Unbeaten 33-year-old German Agit Kabayel<\/a>, 26-0 (18 KOs), is the man in question, as he told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/boxing\/news\/12040\/13476265\/agit-kabayel-declares-that-he-is-the-best-opponent-for-unified-heavyweight-champion-oleksandr-usyk-lets-go\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sky Sports<\/a> that he would relish the challenge of taking on Usyk.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will stay humble but I think people say Kabayel is the best fight [for Usyk].<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think when I fight with the biggest name, we go in a stadium. I think when Usyk\u2019s team understand this, maybe after he says: \u2018Let\u2019s go Kabayel, I will fight with you.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUsyk didn\u2019t say my name in the ring [after beating Dubois]. He will fight with other guys. I don\u2019t know why he didn\u2019t say my name.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think when I make one or two more fights in Germany, I\u2019m ready for Usyk. I love big challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following his victory over Zhilei Zhang in February, Kabayel said he was ready for the step up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fans will say I\u2019m ready for the world title shot, I\u2019m ready!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kabayel returns on January 10 at the Rudolf Weber-Arena in Oberhausen, where he will defend his WBC Interim belt against unbeaten Pole Damian Knyba, 17-0 (11 KOs).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now no longer the undisputed heavyweight champion, fans are wondering who Oleksandr Usyk will fight next. The Ukrainian&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-289758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}