Would Kabayel beat Rico with body shots like Makhmudov, Sanchez and Zhang?

Rico is a walking uppercuts machine. Usyk was throwing a lot of pitty Pat uppercuts rather than fully committing to them until late in the fight.

Kabayel isn’t going to be hesitant with the uppercut. He will land it hard and early. Nighty night .

 

I don’t think this fight will happen though. Both are looking for paydays but neither of them have a large nor PPV paying fanbase, and Rico is not mandatory. I think both of them will look to fight UK/US boxers, in additio Rico will try for the Usyk rematch.

 

Probably.

If Rico employs the same style he did against Usyk, he will probably lose. That would be fighting Kabayel's fight, and whilst he would have some success early on, I feel he would eventually get broken down by the tougher, more experienced guy.

I'd imagine he would fight in a more traditional big man style; fighting at range behind the jab. I don't follow kick boxing these days, but I'm led to believe that this is the style Rico fights in when kickboxing. I've heard a few on here say that Rico isn't a top boxer at range. It's why Usyk was so heavily favoured by many who knew both fighter's styles. If this is true, I imagine the same would happen as I mentioned above; he'd start out well, staying out of trouble. Land a few shots himself. Eventually, Kabayel would start getting to him and breaking him down.

What is Rico's power like? His KO percentage in KB isn't great. Does he have the power to trouble Kabayel, who is a pretty tough fella?

 

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.

 

This

 

I'd like to see him box again, he earned the right to another big fight