WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman told Boxing Scene Friday he expects three-belt heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk to adhere to the sanctioning body’s order for Usyk to next meet interim beltholder Agit Kabayel. Usyk, 24-0 (15 KOs), is a prohibitive favorite to defeat kickboxer Rico Verhoeven Saturday in the main event of a Saudi Arabia-funded card at Egypt’s Pyramids of Giza.
Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia’s boxing financier Turki Alalshikh announced he will stage a 2027 card for Usyk in Istanbul, Turkey; a destination ideally suited for Germany’s Kabayel, 27-0 (19 KOs).
Kabayel can be assured of strong fan support, should the fight happen, given the estimates that as many as 20 million Kurds reside in Turkey.
“I’m very confident that Usyk will want to fight Kabayel next,” Sulaiman said.
Criticized previously for not enforcing a title fight between countryman Canelo Alvarez and his then mandatory and interim champion at 168lbs, David Benavidez, Sulaiman was asked if he would strip his belt from Usyk for not fighting Kabayel.
“I don’t like to approach it that way,” Sulaiman said.
Instead, he’s leaning on the goodwill and bonding that was evident between Usyk and Sulaiman when the two-division unified champion was honored late last year at the WBC convention in Bangkok.
Usyk, 39, said earlier this week he only anticipates two more fights after Saturday’s, and Kabayel, who went 3-0 in Saudi Arabia bouts with three knockouts, told reporters in Egypt that Usyk “must” fight him.
Usyk has already twice defeated each of current and former heavyweight champions Daniel Dubois, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
