Carl Froch has given his view on whether or not Oleksandr Usyk has chosen to vacate his world titles as a way of avoiding a fight with Agit Kabayel.
At the end of last week, Usyk announced that he was vacating all his belts but that he would continue to fight on.
The now 39-year old Ukrainian is one of the best to ever do it and has proven that across an unblemished record of 25 wins, including victories over Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois, all of whom he has beaten twice without being put down on the canvas.
Although he vacated the WBO strap in order to fight Rico Verhoeven last time out, he still held the WBA, WBC and IBF belts, but has now revealed that the next time he takes to the ring, nothing but pride will be on the line.
That means he is no longer subject to fighting his mandatory challengers, which are enforced by the sanctioning bodies on a rotating basis, and next, he would have been ordered to take on German Kabayel.
Speaking to Froch on Fighting, former super-middleweight world champion Froch pondered whether vacating the belts is to avoid that contest.
“A fight with Agit Kabayel might be a bit risky, and there might be people saying he’s swerved him. He hasn’t swerved him, he’s beaten everybody he needs to beat. What a guy, nothing left to do, unbelievable guy, unbelievable fighter.”
Kabayel has now been promoted to full world champion and will look to make his first defence against the next available challenger.
As for Usyk, meanwhile, there have been rumours that his last dance could come against American knockout artist Deontay Wilder, who he has admitted before that he would love to fight.
