Heavyweight boxing enters a new era after Usyk vacates his belts. Here’s where they’re all headed
BEIRUT: Heavyweight boxing is entering a new era after Oleksandr Usyk’s decided to stand down as unified champion and sent his belts to different parts of the world. That’s given a bunch of globally unheralded fighters the chance to emerge from the shadows in the sport’s glamor division. Usyk recently vacated his WBA, IBF and WBC heavyweight world titles “ahead of stepping into the ring for my final fight” — without saying who that “last dance,” as he put it, would be against. “I want to make them available,” the unbeaten Ukrainian said of his belts, “so the guys who are next in line can fight for them.” So, who are they? Here’s a look at where the belts are headed in a division that has been blown wide open as Usyk — the dominant heavyweight force for the last five years — takes a new direction and established stars like Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury are seemingly in the twilight of their careers. Germany’s first heavyweight champ in nearly a century Agit Kabayel didn’t even have to fight to become world champion. The 33-year-old German was recognized as the new WBC champion last weekend, his ascension capping a steady rise in his 15-year undefeated professional career. Over the past few years Kabayel has collected various regional heavyweight titles — European, Continental Americas, Mediterranean — amid a run of 27 straight wins. Now he has been gifted the big one before fight No.
