{"id":503440,"date":"2026-03-30T12:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/503440\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T12:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:52:07","slug":"heavyweight-rival-says-hell-be-fuming-if-usyk-refuses-to-face-him-i-want-that-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/503440\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavyweight rival says he’ll be ‘fuming’ if Usyk refuses to face him: “I want that fight”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oleksandr Usyk<\/a>\u2019s three-fight plan has got the heavyweight contenders riled up, and one of the names that is on that hit list has admitted that he will be \u2018fuming\u2019 if the Ukrainian pursues other options.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Usyk revealed plans to take on the victor of Fabio Wardley<\/a>\u2019s upcoming WBO world title defence against Daniel Dubois<\/a>, after his fight with Rico Verhoeven in May, before finishing his career with a Tyson Fury<\/a> trilogy clash.<\/p>\n

However, fans have demanded that the Ukrainian fights WBC mandatory challenger Agit Kabayel, due to the German\u2019s triumphs over Arslanbek Makhmudov, Frank Sanchez and Zhilei Zhang, which are adjudged to merit a title challenge.<\/p>\n

Usyk has since admitted that a showdown with Kabayel could take place<\/a> and potentially replace one of the three fights that he announced, but Fabio Wardley has told iFL TV<\/a> that he does not believe the 39-year-old truly knows who he wants to face before hanging up the gloves.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one knows [who he is going to fight]. One minute he is over in Egypt fighting a pharaoh or something, the next he wants to fight me, then he wants to fight Kabayel. He doesn\u2019t know what he wants to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will just crack on, I will keep winning and knocking people out and if he wants to have a go, he can have a go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, when quizzed whether it would be a relief to avoid Usyk, Wardley declared that he would be \u2018fuming\u2019 if he and his fellow undefeated heavyweight did not go toe-to-toe before he retires from the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely not, I would be fuming. I got through the Joseph Parker fight and I wanted Usyk. I\u2019m going to get through the Daniel fight and I want Usyk. How many tests does he want [me to have]?<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I am going through Usyk tests. He is setting me things to do before I am allowed to fight him. So, if I do them, and then he just f**ks off, I will be fuming. I\u2019ll be having words.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wardley-Dubois takes place on Saturday, May 9, at the Co-Op Live Arena in Manchester<\/a>, as the Ipswich fan-favourite makes his first defence of the WBO crown since being elevated to world champion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk\u2019s three-fight plan has got the heavyweight contenders riled up, and one of the names that is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-503440","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\/503440","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=503440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}