Oleksandr Usyk may be the best heavyweight on the planet and one of the pound-for-pound greats of his generation, but he is still willing to admit the danger posed by the division’s top contenders.
Usyk has not been beaten in the professional ranks. After winning a Gold medal in the London 2012 Olympics, he turned over and soon began racking up the wins. By 2018 he was the undisputed cruiserweight champion, but didn’t stop there.
He moved up to heavyweight and cleaned out that division by twice beating Anthony Joshua to unify and defend the titles, then he beat Tyson Fury in May 2024 to become undisputed and also won the rematch back in December.
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Usyk will soon have mandatories coming his way should he decide to fight on, including the likes of WBC Interim Champion Agit Kabayel, who is coming off the back of a big KO victory over Zhilei Zhang on February 22.
After that fight, Usyk spoke to talkSPORT Boxing about Kabayel and acknowledged he posed a big threat.
“Listen, I yesterday I said Kabayel, he is very dangerous to the body. This morning at maybe 10, 11, I told Zhilei ‘hey please, be careful to the body.’”
The special southpaw has revealed that he is now motivated by becoming a two-time undisputed champion which could lead to a fight with IBF ruler Daniel Dubois, who he has already beaten.
Despite ultimately winning the fight via KO, he was put down with a body shot from Dubois, and that is an area that people have often claimed he is vulnerable which is why Kabayel could also pose a problem were the two to fight.
Should Usyk and Dubois face off a second time, Kabayel will be expected to continue his excellent run of form – stoppages over Arslanbek Makhmudov, Frank Sanchez and Zhang – by facing another top ranked heavyweight, with both Joseph Parker and Anthony Joshua in the running.
