{"id":631324,"date":"2026-06-10T14:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T14:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/631324\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T14:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T14:51:09","slug":"tony-bellew-says-one-heavyweight-deserves-to-face-usyk-next-more-than-agit-kabayel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/631324\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Bellew says one heavyweight ‘deserves’ to face Usyk next more than Agit Kabayel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> is expected to fight on just two more occasions before hanging up the gloves, but former opponent, Tony Bellew, believes that there is one heavyweight who deserves a shot at the 39-year-old more than his rivals.<\/p>\n

Ahead of last month\u2019s controversial bout with Rico Verhoeven, Usyk unveiled that he was planning on three more fights before walking away from the sport and opening up a boxing academy in Ukraine, content with a career that will be talked about for generations to come.<\/p>\n

However, to the surprise of many, his reputation was almost tarnished by Verhoeven<\/a>, who had just one prior boxing fight to his name, escaping by the skin of his teeth with a questionable round 11 stoppage to preserve a now 25-fight undefeated record and retain his WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight world titles.<\/p>\n

Now, Usyk is expected to face WBC mandatory challenger, Agit Kabayel<\/a>, before the end of the 2026 calendar in order to keep ahold of the green and gold belt, with that bout being ordered by the World Boxing Council over a week ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet, in an interview with Fightlens<\/a>, Bellew, who was stopped in the eighth round of his 2018 clash with Usyk, admitted that he would prefer to see the Ukrainian rematch Verhoeven.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I am being totally honest, I believe that Rico Verhoeven deserves a rematch. I just don\u2019t think that he [Usyk] can get away from that.<\/p>\n

I know that Agit Kabayel is very deserving and he has waited patiently, I get it, but I am sorry, this guy has just been pushed the closest that he has ever been pushed.\u201d<\/p>\n

That being said, Bellew went on to state that he would understand if Usyk decided to swerve a second fight with the kickboxing star, but insinuated that a different approach to the contest could result in a more conclusive victory the second time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t blame him [Usyk for not wanting the rematch]. I am not going to say that he is getting old, because that is a disservice to Rico Verhoeven and Peter Fury and the work that they have put it. So, it\u2019s not that he is getting older, but what I do think is \u2013 I don\u2019t think it was the ideal weight for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the outside looking in, I seen him Saturday morning, I gave him a hug and just thought, \u2018ooh, you are solid, like you are heavy and you are a proper heavyweight, you are a lump\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes that play a factor? Well, it definitely played a factor on his workmate because he wasn\u2019t throwing as much. Does the temperature, the setting and surrounding play a part? I don\u2019t know. There is so many factors, only he knows, he is the champion and he is the man who is in control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verhoeven has vowed to remain in the sport even if unable to secure a second showdown with Usyk, and he is now ranked in the top 15 with both the WBC and WBA<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk is expected to fight on just two more occasions before hanging up the gloves, but former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-631324","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\/631324","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=631324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}