{"id":610589,"date":"2026-05-29T16:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T16:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/610589\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T16:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T16:02:07","slug":"agit-kabayel-sums-up-oleksandr-usyks-performance-against-rico-verhoeven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/610589\/","title":{"rendered":"Agit Kabayel sums up Oleksandr Usyk’s performance against Rico Verhoeven"},"content":{"rendered":"

Agit Kabayel<\/a> has critiqued Oleksandr Usyk<\/a>\u2019s performance against Rico Verhoeven, considering the standard of opponent he could potentially face in his next outing.<\/p>\n

Despite being the overwhelming pre-fight favourite, Usyk was made to overcome several prickly moments<\/a> in his WBC world heavyweight title defence last Saturday.<\/p>\n

Defeat would have meant losing his IBF and WBA titles, too, which seemed increasingly likely as Verhoeven gave a stronger effort than many had anticipated.<\/p>\n

Employing an awkward style, the decorated kickboxer was able to find repeated success with his right hand, despite only having one prior professional boxing match to his name.<\/p>\n

This came in 2014, when the Dutchman stopped an 0-5 heavyweight in round two, with his fistic credentials paling in comparison to those of Usyk.<\/p>\n

But while many complained that he was given a world title shot \u2013 and rightly so \u2013 Verhoeven nonetheless exceeded practically everyone\u2019s expectations with his performance.<\/p>\n

In the end, though, it was Usyk who emerged victorious, albeit via a controversial 11th-round stoppage<\/a> where referee Mark Lyson intervened at the sound of the bell.<\/p>\n

Moments before, the 39-year-old had floored Verhoeven with a sickening uppercut, which ultimately saw him remain unbeaten as a professional.<\/p>\n

Hoping to scupper the Ukrainian\u2019s unblemished record, meanwhile, is Kabayel, who told Inside The Ring<\/a> that he feels Verhoeven\u2019s unfamiliar style played a significant role.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t the perfect performance from Usyk, but it is what it is. You see the situation [with Usyk struggling].<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it was also bad. When I see the fight, I felt [nervous]. I wait so long for the opportunity with Usyk, and he makes a very bad [job of it against Verhoeven].<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he is old. But I think Rico has a very unorthodox style. This was hard for Usyk \u2013 he cannot watch [much boxing tape of] Rico. He does not understand what the plan is from Rico.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the WBC \u2018interim\u2019 champion, Kabayel should soon be ordered to fight for the full world title, which could become vacant if Usyk decides to explore alternative options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Agit Kabayel has critiqued Oleksandr Usyk\u2019s performance against Rico Verhoeven, considering the standard of opponent he could potentially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-610589","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\/610589","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=610589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}