Rico Verhoeven vs Agit Kabayel for the WBC Heavyweight Championship

Kabayel is going to destroy this guy and make it look like easy work, he won't be throwing pitty patty uppercuts like Usyk did, didn't like the fight at first but it's going to be a great experience now that people are convinced Rico is a top heavyweight

 

Good Lord.

This is fast becoming the worst era in heavyweight history.

First Kadiro gets a shot with Gassiev, and now Rico has one win (against a guy with no wins) in his whole career, and he gets two title shots in a row?

 

Rico-Knyba, let's go!

Or not... That woulde be a BORING matchup.

Knyba's record is very lacklustre too.

 

Rico's actually got better footwork, head movement and lateral movement than many heavies. What he lacks is power and proper punching technique.

Ngannou is a powerhouse, but a stationary target... Any proper puncher will most likely always put his lights out.

 

After Rico's impressive performance against Usyk, I don't actually mind this fight if Agit is getting a huge amount of cash for it. This is what boxing is now, and this fight sells out a stadium in Holland, Turkey, Germany, wherever it is held in Europe.

Agit has been avoided for years, wasting away on the sidelines, and should've had a crack at one of the champions years ago, all while the likes of Dubois are making eye-watering sums of money. The blueprint is there to beat Rico now, so I would be surprised if Kabayel doesn't deal with him fairly easily, but I thought Usyk was going to make Rico look stupid, and I got that one completely wrong.

Vitali, Caleb Plant, Dillian Whyte, Algieri (I think) - all transitioned from kickboxing to fight for world titles and held their own with the elite, Rico might have jumped the line, but he gave Usyk his toughest fight. That alone accounts for a lot in this current landscape.

 

Povetkin, Jarrell Miller and Briedis also have Kickboxing/Muay Thai backgrounds. A kickboxer, Tyrone Spong, was also supposed to be Usyk's first HW opponent.

 

It's a decent fight. Verhoeven gave the undisputed champ everything he could handle for 11 rounds of a fight that ended controversially.

Styles aside, Kabayel (will be 34) would have advantages here that Usyk (39) did not have:

1. Rico now has more age and wear, coming off his first defeat in 11 years, by stoppage

2. Kabayel's team have 11 relevant rounds of Rico boxing footage to study, Usyk had zero

3. Kabayel will not underestimate Rico as Usyk likely did to a lesser or greater extent, and will be more motivated to "do a job" on Rico and look better in comparison (However, if Kabayel is too eager, that could potentially play into Rico's hands)

 

Gets stopped and gets a title shot. WBC at its slimiest

 

Avoided my ass. Kabayel has essentially sat on his interm title by fighting as little as humanly possible before his title was emailed to him when Usyk decided to call it quits. I will acknowledge that there was some delay with Usyk, and that Kabayel appeared to be chasing that fight, but he could have still been more active in the meantime.

I'll give him credit for taking on Rico as a first defense though, because he's definitely a banana skin that will cause him issues. Just because Usyk squeaked a stoppage doesn't mean everyone else can, and as far as I'm concerned there is no blueprint based on the footage of one highly competitive fight.

Too many unknowns to make a definitive call, but I'm backing on Rico because I like his style.

 

Rico, despite his massive size, never seems to sit down on his punches, and he threw quite a few arm punches against Usyk.

He'd be a dangerous man if someone could teach him how to just sit down on his punches.

 

He managed to rock Usyk a couple of times IIRC when he did sit down on them, it's just not something you can do often against someone like Usyk because you need to disrupt his rhythm as often as possible.

 

Povetkin, Huck, Skelton, Ustinov, Briedis. Just to name a few more off the top of my head.

 

And he fought Kynba in his last fight after doing nothing for almost a year. He did his usual thing breaking down a big oaf, but the stoppage was a bit early(even if it was inevitable) and Kynba was actually having some success. If the same Rico who fought Usyk shows up Kabayel would definitely have his hands full.

 

Rico has always been susceptible to head shots. He's got exceptional recovery and toughness though. Kabayel isn't exactly known for his concussive punching power. So breaking an in shape elite athlete down to the body who isn't going to just be standing in front of him especially in the first half of the fight might not be so easy.