{"id":626203,"date":"2026-06-07T15:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T15:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/626203\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T15:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T15:58:07","slug":"mandatory-challenger-says-oleksandr-usyk-will-not-want-to-face-him-hes-100-scared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/626203\/","title":{"rendered":"Mandatory challenger says Oleksandr Usyk will not want to face him: “He’s 100% scared”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oleksandr Usyk has been confronted by allegations that he is running scared, preferring to enter a rematch with Rico Verhoeven than face his mandatory challenger.<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old came through a tougher-than-expected encounter with Verhoeven<\/a> last month, when many expected him to dismantle the former kickboxer in double-quick fashion.<\/p>\n

As it happened, though, a subpar performance from Usyk saw their heavyweight contest progress into round 11, at which point the Ukrainian was trailing on one of the judges\u2019 scorecards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The southpaw then managed to capitalise on a fatigued Verhoeven, who was floored by a right uppercut before being stopped on his feet by referee Mark Lyson.<\/p>\n

Due to the finish arriving at the sound of the bell, many have suggested the Dutchman was wrongfully waved off, while perhaps believing that Usyk was afforded a slice of luck as he retained his WBC, IBF and WBA titles.<\/p>\n

Whichever way you slice or dice it, though, Usyk must now decide whether to vacate his WBC strap or face \u2018interim\u2019 champion Agit Kabayel in his next outing.<\/p>\n

Either way, the German contender is due his shot at the full title, but tells talkSPORT<\/a> that he suspects Usyk will pursue an immediate rematch with Verhoeven.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the next [in line] for Usyk, for the WBC title. But now, when I come back to Germany, I think Usyk is scared of me. He will not want to fight Agit Kabayel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he will make a rematch with Rico. He understands he can beat Rico better; now he can watch [their first] fight and make the [adjustments].<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he fights with Kabayel, it\u2019s a different fight and for now I think he\u2019s scared of Kabayel. Yes, 100% [he\u2019s scared].\u201d<\/p>\n

Kabayel secured his \u2018interim\u2019 title with a sixth-round finish over Zhilei Zhang in February 2025, while other notable stoppages have come against Frank Sanchez and Arslanbek Makhmudov.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk has been confronted by allegations that he is running scared, preferring to enter a rematch with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-626203","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\/626203","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=626203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}