Usyk Vs Kabayel 2026 Poll

Usyk has declined certainly, but this Kabayel is grossly overrated for some reason. To me he looks very, very ordinary. I think even today's past-his-best Usyk beats a fighter like this

 

Kabayel was already a dangerous enough opponent for a 2024, 2025 version of Usyk, let alone a 2026-2027 version Usyk. A prime or closer to prime version would outbox him comfortably, even the version we saw a year ago would stand a far greater chance of beating him than the version we saw the other night who looked like a pale shadow of his former self

The weight disparity between Kabayel and Usyk, assuming Kabayel comes in around the same weight he has been in recent fights and Usyk gets back down to say 225, would be about 15-16lbs but in terms of natural size its's a lot more than that. He looked like a completely different species to Usyk the other day in terms of width, thickness, head and neck size, way heavier and that was biggest Usyk we've ever seen

Kabayel is folding 262-287lb man mountains with body shots, Usyk is a natural CW who should be no more than 220lbs

If Usyk came in at 233 again and Kabayel at 240-241 there would only be a 7-8lb difference between them but it would be so deceptive in terms of natural size

People say Kabayel is slow but he actually has quick hands for his size. I've seen him come in much heavier than 241 and it didn't effect his hand speed at all and he still looked excellent.

Usyk would obviously need his feet and movement for that fight and his speed, reaction times, and reflexes and they're all greatly diminished

And then it's just expected of him to fight the much bigger/even more naturally bigger, six year younger and much fresher Kabayel in Germany on a deck heavily stacked in Kabayek's favour where they'd likely give Kabayel as small a ring as possible which would be a massive advantage for him and make a huge difference, when Usyk is 40 y/o or a couple of months at best if that from turning 40 when Usyk is well past his prime and looked every day of his 39 + years in his previous fight

Again, it would make a lot more sense to stage the fight in Poland but they just expect Usyk to fight him in Germany when he's already forged a career being the ultimate road warrior and he's giving away so many other advantages to Kabayel already and is routinely doing things no one else in the sport is

It's a huge ask and even worse Usyk won't receive any credit for fighting the much bigger, younger, fresher and more powerful prime version of Kabayel in Germany on a deck stacked against him from so many and if he were to lose all of that context would be completely ignored and he will be crucified for it and they will act like he was in his prime and not taking another massive risk fighting another much bigger, younger, fresher and more powerful prime top contender or fellow champ in their backyard on a deck stacked against him

 

And in addition to that, we've already seen with both Usyk and Loma that even when you do everything the right and noble way and pretty much exclusively fight the best or tough touches on the road or in their backyards

Whilst being the complete antithesis of weight bullies and routinely giving away big or huge size advantages w/o catchweights or rehydration clauses and trying to cripple your opponents at the negotiating table

W/o home advantage, home officials

Fighting loads of KO artists or big punchers not only your size but bigger, much or way bigger

Being clean fighters who beat you with pure skills and not fouling and cheating

And not putting a toe wrong, let alone foot in or out of the ring

This content is protected