Rico Verhoeven vs Agit Kabayel for the WBC Heavyweight Championship

I agree with the sentiment that every fighter should be more active, but it's unfair to say Kabayel is sitting on his arse when most of the top 10 are, and a few of them have even fewer fights than Kabayel since 2023. I also think that if any fighter positions themselves as a mandatory, especially for the WBC title at heavyweight, then it's up to the champion to either **** or get off the pot and vacate, which he has now, to be fair to him, but it took 2 years.

I don't think it's Kabayel's duty to stay active, I think it's the champions duty to defend the belt against the next worthy challenger. If they don't, it's a form of avoidance.

Yeah, as fighters they don't compare, I just meant from an "element of surprise" perspective. Rico has lost his unique angle now where people don't know how he boxes. Not sure he can pull off the same trick against Kabayel, but I am not against the idea of the fight, it's one of the better fights to make at heavyweight.

 

It absolutely is on Kabayel to stay active as both a fighter and a contender. Otherwise the division would never move. Do we really want boxing to get to the point where people only fight once every 2 years?

As for Rico losing the element of surprise, I agree to an extent, but we have no idea what his regular style is yet so plenty of opportunities to continue surprising the division.

 

This. Rico 100% will fight different against someone else. He looked nothing like the Kickboxer Rico in GLORY. He and his team are masters in adapting based on the opponent.

 

Knyba smokes Rico, just like Kabayel is about to

 

Doesn't mean someone like Knyba who's outside top 30 (and probably 50) would...

 

Rico is 37 and has had how many boxing matches ?

Rico can't outbox Knyba from the outside and he isn't a big puncher at all. So please inform me how Rico wins ? I don't care how much trouble he gave Usyk. McGregor was winning rounds against Mayweather, it means nothing

 

All the guys saying Rico gets splattered are probably in for a rude awakening. The guy is a natural fighter and a great champion in an adjacent sport. While I agree that the version of Usyk he fought was poor, there's nothing easy about fighting a dude like him. If Kabayel beats him easily I will be surprised.

 

Rico isn't amazing, but Knyba is pure trash - realistically he gasses early and Rico racks up the rounds.

 

Rico isn't a body puncher nor anywhere near as technical as Kabayel, or as experienced. Styles make fights, how does Rico take away his jab ? He hunches forward and Knyba constantly throws uppercuts which would also be a problem

Rico gets beat up, this dude is overrated and I can't wait when Kabayel massacres him to make a statement about him vs Usyk

 

Lol, Kabayel started ducking so fast.

 

Rico's durability doesn't seem to be a problem... He's limited for sure, but Knyba is absolute gash.

 

in fairness to Usyk, that’s because he lacks power. If he were a puncher, he’d probably have got it done when he hurt Rico in round 4.

 

I think there are several glory heavyweights that Rico has fought that would destroy Knyba. In a boxing ring.....

 

eh, he does the same endless two fisted feinting in glory too. That wasn’t something new for him, that was his usual.