Oleksandr Usyk and Agit Kabayel
might be fighting next, after the bout was finally, officially ordered by the WBC.WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman says that the two have until June 30 to come to an agreement for a fight, after which it will go to purse bid. So not too long now. They have until then to hammer out a deal without purse bids.
“We’re just waiting for them to negotiate and hopefully the fight will happen as soon as possible, and we continue with this great run in heavyweight boxing,” Sulaiman
told Betway. “[Team Usyk] have always known that the mandatory was the one that they requested at the convention. I have not had any communications after we ordered the fight. But it’s exciting. There are many, many great fights that can be happening.”
This does not mean the fight will actually happen. Usyk (25-0, 16 KO) has proven willing to give up title belts in order to go after bigger money fights with someone else. He’s done it once with the IBF title in 2024 and once with the WBO title this year. Both times, Daniel Dubois wound up winning the vacated belt.
Kabayel (27-0, 19 KO) won the interim WBC title in February 2025, beating Zhilei Zhang via sixth round knockout. He defended successfully on January 10 in Germany, stopping Damian Knyba in the third round in front of what may have been the best, loudest boxing crowd of the year in Oberhausen, Germany.
Money man Turki Alalshikh — who would probably win an Usyk vs Kabayel purse bid, either directly or through a middle man “promoter” — seemed to prefer doing Usyk vs Kabayel next, following Usyk’s win over Rico Verhoeven in Egypt, but there has also been a push for a Verhoeven rematch. If a rematch with Rico is significantly more money or Usyk just feels like “setting the record straight” with that matchup, he could give up the WBC title, which would be interesting because the WBC were the most supportive sanctioning body with the Usyk vs Rico fight, giving their sanction without any hemming and hawing.
The WBA eventually sanctioned the fight for their title, too, but the IBF did not. The IBF could also decide to strip Usyk, in theory, if he were to chase a Rico rematch, as they have made their stance clear. Whether the WBC would actually go through with making Usyk defend against Kabayel or vacate — which would likely see Kabayel “elevated” from interim to full titleholder status — also remains to be seen, because Sulaiman and the organization like to stay pretty fluid with these various situations, but they also may have been too direct in this case to keep Kabayel at bay any longer.
