Following his win over Rico Verhoeven, Oleksandr Usyk has been ordered to face WBC mandatory challenger Agit Kabayel next. Four-time super-middleweight world champion Carl Froch has offered his thoughts on the proposed fight.
Usyk scored a round 11 stoppage over Verhoeven last month, but the result did not tell the full story of the bout, as the kickboxing star pushed the Ukrainian to the limit and almost sprung one of the greatest upsets in boxing history.
Whilst Verhoeven did impress, most feel that Usyk’s performance was far from his best – and that includes Froch.
On his YouTube channel, ‘The Cobra’ labelled Kabayel as a ‘tricky’ fight for the unified champion.
“That is a tricky fight, Agit Kabayel is a good fighter; unbeaten, you know what he is and you know what he has done, he is very capable. Has Usyk got old overnight? Is he looking a bit slow? His body looks a bit spread around the middle, he is nearly 40, isn’t he?
“Usyk is past his best. I would have to see Usyk lose and get beat because of age. It’d be such a shame because he has had such a fantastic career, he is so good, one of the best to ever do it. For him to lose because he shouldn’t be fighting anymore, it would be a tragedy.”
Kabayel hopes to face Usyk before the end of the year, with the champion set to be stripped of the WBC crown if he does not take the fight. That would result in the undefeated German being upgraded.
