{"id":602218,"date":"2026-05-25T01:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T01:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/602218\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T01:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T01:08:09","slug":"frank-warren-says-usyk-must-face-agit-kabayel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/602218\/","title":{"rendered":"Frank Warren Says Usyk Must Face Agit Kabayel"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Warren made it clear he expects Usyk to defend against Kabayel next.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Kabayel] has beaten everybody he\u2019s put in front of him, and he\u2019s a real, real class act, a lovely guy, and he can fight,\u201d said Warren to Sky Sports Boxing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe deserves to be in, in the number one spot, and he\u2019s been there for a while.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re talking about maybe doing a rematch with Usyk and Rico [Verhoeven], we\u2019re not going to stand for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kabayel\u2019s position has become a major talking point after Verhoeven pushed Usyk to the brink before being stopped in the final second of round 11. The Dutch kickboxing star stunned fans by backing Usyk up repeatedly and forcing him into long exchanges instead of the controlled boxing display many expected.<\/p>\n

Warren said Kabayel has waited long enough for his title shot and warned there could be consequences if Usyk moves in another direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsyk\u2019s been there long enough, and he wants his moment, and that\u2019s what we\u2019ll be pushing for with WBC, and hopefully get it over the line and do that same time in the autumn,\u201d Warren said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he doesn\u2019t take it, he\u2019ll have to vacate it, or be stripped, it\u2019s as simple as that.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a champion, you defend the belts, that\u2019s what you\u2019re there for, if you don\u2019t defend them, then you\u2019ve got to give them up and let other people have an opportunity to build their name.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warren also admitted he was surprised by how competitive the Verhoeven fight turned out to be. Like many fans watching worldwide, he expected Usyk to handle the former GLORY kickboxing champion comfortably in only his second professional boxing bout. Instead, Warren believed Verhoeven was ahead on the cards before the stoppage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it\u2019d be fairly a routine type of job for Usyk, but that\u2019s not how it turned out,\u201d Warren said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOld Rico, he showed a lot of heart, a lot of desire, and he showed some skills, and he was very aggressive in his movements, and the way he came forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, [Verhoeven] was winning the fight. I didn\u2019t understand the scoring. I genuinely thought that he was in front by a few rounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warren stopped short of criticizing the referee outright, but he did say he felt the fight could have continued into the 12th round.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do feel the referee could have let it go on,\u201d Warren said. \u201cHaving said that, the referee is not a timekeeper. That\u2019s not his job. It\u2019s when he feels it\u2019s appropriate to stop a fight. That\u2019s what he has to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I do feel he could have let it go on, considering where they\u2019d got to in the 11th round, but he was close to the action. That was his decision, and it turned out to be a very, very exciting fight and a big surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olly Campbell is a boxing journalist who has covered the sport since 2014, providing ringside reporting and technical analysis of major bouts. His work focuses on fighter tendencies, tactical adjustments, and the details that shape high-level competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warren made it clear he expects Usyk to defend against Kabayel next. \u201c[Kabayel] has beaten everybody he\u2019s put…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-602218","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\/602218","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=602218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}