Warren to Sue the WBC if Oleksandr Usyk-Agit Kabayel Not Ordered
By Eddie Sanchez
Frank Warren has threatened to take legal action against the WBC if they do not officially order champion Oleksandr Usyk to defend his belt against interim title holder Agit Kabayel next. Kabayel won the vacant interim strap with a sixth-round KO of Zhilei Zhang in February 2025. Since then, he has been waiting patiently for his shot at the championship.
The WBC announced at their annual convention in December that they would permit Usyk a voluntary defense, which at the time was expected to be against Deontay Wilder, before ordering him to then face Kabayel.
Since then, the WBC has faced criticism for sanctioning Usyk’s defense against kickboxer Rico Verhoeven on May 16 in Egypt. Verhoeven has fought once professionally, winning a scheduled four-round contest by KO against the 0-5 Janos Finfera, more than a decade ago. Though, for what it’s worth, Rico reigned as champion in GLORY kickboxing for 12-years.
Following Usyk’s expected victory over Verhoeven, the champion had stated he wished to face the winner of the May 9 WBO title fight between Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois, with Tyson Fury to follow, with the latter two names being opponents he had previously beaten twice.
“Kabayel’s number one in the WBC, and the fight goes on in Egypt between Usyk and Rico Verhoeven, and afterwards the WBC will have to order the mandatory, and if they don’t, we will sue them,” Warren shared to reporters. I’m telling you, I’m not going to piss around with this, Agit deserves his opportunity, he should be in there, and if anyone tries to duck that fight, then he’ll have to vacate, it’s as simple as that. Fight Agit or vacate. We are not going to stand for it, why would an organisation not order that fight, why wouldn’t you? We just sold out the arena in a day, which we could have sold out three times over. It’s not like he’s some guy where you’re not going to earn any money, that’s a football stadium fight between him and Usyk. I want to see it. I’m a big fan of Usyk’s, he’s a real warrior, why wouldn’t he want to fight him?”
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