Right then. Let's not beat around the bush — Agit Kabayel has gone public again, and this time he's brought a sales pitch. Twelve days out from Usyk-Verhoeven in Giza, the German is making sure the conversation about what's actually next at heavyweight gets steered firmly toward him.
What Kabayel Said
The line that's doing the rounds: “Now he fights with Anthony Joshua, he fights with Tyson Fury, he fights with Daniel Dubois, and when he wins with Rico, why not Kabayel with Usyk in Germany? I think we can easy, easy sell out a stadium.”
That isn't trash talk. That's a business case dressed up in a soundbite. And make no mistake — Kabayel is right. Germany has been starved of a stadium heavyweight night since Klitschko walked away. The appetite is there. The platform is there. The mandatory situation is already there.
Why This Is The Right Fight
Let's look at the case on merit. Kabayel has done everything a heavyweight has been asked to do over the last three years — he's beaten Efe Ajagba, he's flattened Frank Sanchez, he's stopped Arslanbek Makhmudov, and his body work on Zhilei Zhang was one of the most professionally cruel stoppages of the decade. He's the WBC interim. He's the mandatory. He's earned this.
Usyk, meanwhile, has chosen a kickboxer for his next outing. A spectacle. A money-grab in Egypt that the WBC, to their credit but also to their shame, allowed. The patience of the actual heavyweight queue has been tested.
Stadium Maths In Germany
Could it actually sell out? Yes. The Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin pulls 17,000 standing for boxing — a comfortable benchmark. The bigger play is the Olympiastadion. That ground takes 70,000-plus for football. For a unified-title heavyweight night with a German champion in his prime, in a country that produced Schmeling, Maske and the Klitschkos, 50,000 to 60,000 isn't a stretch. It's a baseline.
Kabayel's domestic fanbase isn't the issue. The issue is purely whether Usyk can be talked into a stadium night in someone else's country when Riyadh and Wembley sit on his speed dial.
The WBC's Move Now
This is where the WBC has to actually do its job. The sanctioning body installed Kabayel as interim. The mandatory cycle exists for a reason. If Usyk wins on May 23 and immediately starts dancing toward an October exhibition in Saudi, the WBC has to step in and order the fight. Not negotiate it. Not allow another step-aside. Order it.
If they don't, the green belt becomes Saudi window-dressing — and the heavyweight division loses its most credible up-and-coming contender to a year of paid waiting.
Luke's Read
I'm with Kabayel. The German has carried himself with patience and class while the heavyweight division has handed him every reason to lose his mind. He's not begging for a fight, he's offering one. And he's offering it in a market that would actually go mad for it.
Usyk is on a finish-line lap. He's earned the right to pick his spots. But if he wins in Giza and the WBC doesn't ring-fence Kabayel as his next mandatory, the interim system is officially a sham. Levels of mandatory, levels of respect, levels of how this should be handled.
My prediction: Usyk beats Verhoeven inside seven, gets his Giza payday, then sits down for one of two negotiations — Kabayel in Germany in November, or one final domestic showdown with Anthony Joshua. If I'm in the WBC office, the answer is Kabayel. Make no mistake.