OLEKSANDR USYK could land a world title fight in a German football stadium – or risk losing ANOTHER belt.
Usyk beat Daniel Dubois for the second time in July to become a two-time undisputed heavyweight world champion.
But by November, he vacated the WBO strap with Britain’s Fabio Wardley elevated from the interim title.
Usyk returns on May 23 in Egypt against kickboxing great Rico Verhoeven – which has controversially been sanctioned for the WBC gold.
But Usyk must then defend the belt against mandatory challenger Agit Kabayel in his next bout – or else face being stripped.
Promoter Frank Warren is ready to take that fight to a football stadium in Germany – despite Usyk not naming Kabayel in his list of next opponents.
Warren told SunSport: “Oh, we’d do it. We sold out in a day over there, 12,500 seat stadium, we could have probably done three times the amount.
“The fight for the world title, it will be huge and Germany’s always a good market.
“I mean, I’ve done shows over there in the past with Peter Kohl many years ago, and they were always very well, very, very well attended.
“And I think Usyk fighting there, there’s a big Ukrainian, population in Germany as well.
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The Home of Boxing in 2026
There’s a massive year of boxing ahead!
It’s shaping up to be a blockbuster year of action inside the boxing ring.
Tyson Fury will make his return in April against Arslanbek Makhmudov while Oleksandr Usyk takes on the king of kickboxing Rico Verhoeven.
Conor Benn features for the first time since making the switch to Zuffa Boxing and Fabio Wardley will defend his newly won heavyweight crown.
Canelo Alvarez will be hoping to return after his defeat to Terence Crawford and heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk will also defend his straps.
Derek Chisora will fight for the 50th and (perhaps) final time against Deontay Wilder while Daniel Dubois is also on the comeback trail.
A whole bunch of British stars could also take a leap into superstardom, with the likes of Moses Itauma, Hamzah Sheeraz and Adam Azim ready to join the very top of the sport.
Here’s all the big fights coming up…
March
- Sat 21 – George Liddard vs Tyler Denny – British & Commonwealth Middleweight title – DAZN
- Sat 28 – Moses Itauma vs Jermaine Franklin – DAZN
- Sat 28 – Sebastian Fundora vs Keith Thurman – Amazon Prime PPV
April
- Sat 4 – Deontay Wilder vs Derek Chisora – DAZN PPV
- Sun 5 – Caroline Dubois vs Terri Harper – Sky Sports
- Sat 11 – Tyson Fury vs Arslanbek Makhmudov – Netflix
- Sat 11 – Conor Benn vs Regis Prograis – Netflix
- Sat 18 – Callum Smith vs David Morrell – DAZN
- Sat 18 – Manny Pacquiao vs Ruslan Provodnikov
- Sat 25 – Lawrence Okolie vs Tony Yoka – DAZN
May
- Sat 2 – Zurdo Ramirez vs David Benavidez – WBA & WBO Cruiserweight titles – Prime Video
- Sat 9 – Fabio Wardley vs Daniel Dubois – WBO title – DAZN
- Sat 23 – Oleksandr Usyk vs Rico Verhoeven – WBC title – DAZN
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“I think it’s a no brainer, but if he doesn’t want to do it, then he’ll fight for the vacant title.”
Warren’s heavyweight stable are all primed for a shot at Usyk’s titles.
He said: “You’ve got Tony Yoka fighting against Lawrence Okolie. The winner of that is to become a mandatory.
“You’ve got Moses [Itauma] fighting against [Jermaine] Franklin, if he comes through that, he’s ranked number one in the WBO.
“So all these mandatories are all going to come round and obviously, whoever’s champion – which is Oleksandr Usyk at the moment – they’re gonna have to defend those mandatory or otherwise he’ll get stripped.”
