{"id":496559,"date":"2026-03-26T14:52:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T14:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/496559\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T14:52:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T14:52:20","slug":"oleksandr-usyk-takes-new-stance-on-agit-kabayel-mandatory-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/496559\/","title":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk takes new stance on Agit Kabayel mandatory fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/oleksandr-usyk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> has given a fresh update on a potential clash against <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/agit-kabayel\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Agit Kabayel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Usyk returns to action in May when he defends his WBC heavyweight title in a controversial match-up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/boxing\/story\/_\/id\/48055495\/usyk-defend-wbc-title-kickboxer-pyramids-giza\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">with kickboxing star Rico Verhoeven<\/a> at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking recently, the Ukrainian revealed that after that bout, he intended to face the winner of the WBO heavyweight title battle between Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois, before then targeting a trilogy fight with former rival Tyson Fury.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/usyk-mandatory-reacts-to-list\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">One notable omission from his plans<\/a> was a showdown with unbeaten WBC mandatory challenger Agit Kabayel, but Usyk has now once again opened the door for a possible fight with Kabayel.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/article-15673877\/Oleksandr-Usyk-Anthony-Joshua-Ukraine-war-kyiv.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Speaking to the Daily Mail<\/a>, Usyk said he could potentially face Kabayel instead of taking on Fury again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe I will fight Kabayel \u2013 maybe I don\u2019t face Tyson Fury for a third time and I fight Kabayel instead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI only say my plan but that is not set in stone. I understand the Agit fans are saying you must fight him, you must fight him. But I don\u2019t have to fight him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI must live my life, I must look after my team, my children. As for fighting, I just work hard and my opponents work hard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook, maybe it\u2019s possible I fight Agit. All I can say is he\u2019s a great fighter and he\u2019s very smart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While he ponders whether to face Kabayel or Fury, it seems Usyk is indeed set on facing whoever comes out on top between Wardley and Dubois, which could give the 39-year-old the chance to become a three-time undisputed heavyweight champion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk has given a fresh update on a potential clash against Agit Kabayel. Usyk returns to action&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-496559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496559","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=496559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}