Oleksandr Usyk will still have his WBC heavyweight title, one of three he currently holds, but WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman has given him notice that he is facing being stripped if he does not face Agit Kabayel.
Speaking with DAZN’s Chris Mannix, Sulaiman said Usyk has requested a voluntary defense, which has been granted, but that after one more fight, he must face Kabayel or be stripped of the title.
Kabayel (27-0, 19 KO) holds the interim WBC title, which he defended on January 10 in Germany, stopping Damian Knyba in front of a truly raucous crowd in Oberhausen.
Kabayel, 33, won the interim title in February 2022, beating Zhilei Zhang.
The 39-year-old Usyk (24-0, 15 KO) does not currently have a fight scheduled. He last fought on July 19 of 2025, knocking out Daniel Dubois. Some would expect for Kabayel to be ordered as mandatory challenger immediately, but that will not be the case.
Usyk’s win over Dubois made him undisputed champion for a fourth time. He has since vacated the WBO title, which Fabio Wardley now holds. Wardley beat Joseph Parker last October for the interim WBO title, and was later elevated to full title status. At the moment, Wardley is expected to face Dubois in May.
Usyk hasn’t shown much interest in facing either Kabayel or Wardley — at least not Wardley before he became WBO champ, that could change things — as he’s near the end of his career and looking to secure the biggest money, biggest name fights, even floating the idea of facing a much less relevant Deontay Wilder, before Wilder signed on to fight Derek Chisora in April. It’s known that Tyson Fury — who returns in April to face Arslanbek Makhmudov — is interested in a third fight with Usyk, and that may still be the biggest money bout the Ukrainian P4P star can get.
