Frank Warren has threatened to take legal action against the World Boxing Council (WBC) if they do not officially order champion Oleksandr Usyk to defend his belt against interim title holder Agit Kabayel next.
Germany’s Kabayel won the vacant interim strap with an impressive sixth round finish of Zhilei Zhang in February 2025. Since then, the German has been waiting patiently for his shot at champion Usyk while defending his interim title against Damian Knyba in Oberhausen, Germany in January, winning inside three rounds at a sold-out Rudolf Weber-Arena.
The WBC announced at their annual convention in December that they would permit Usyk a voluntary defense – then 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 knockout against the 0-5 Janos Finfera, 12 whole years ago.
Even before a title was on the line, the contest itself was ridiculed due to Usyk having a long line of worthy challengers – Kabayel perhaps at the front – and taking on the wholly undeserving Verhoeven to essentially put the rest of the division on hold.
Following Usyk’s expected victory over Verhoeven, the Ukrainian 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. Usyk already has two wins over each of Dubois and Fury.
“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 told BoxingScene. “I'm telling you, I'm not going to piss around with this, Agit [Kabayel] 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 Kabayel’s last fight] 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?”
Warren’s Queensberry Promotions are also currently in a legal dispute with organizations Riyadh Season and Sela.
