Oleksandr Usyk’s next move is due this week, and retirement is now part of the decision. Sergey Lapin said the two-time undisputed heavyweight champion will have a call by the end of the week on whether to pursue Agit Kabayel or step away from the ring altogether.
The timing matters because the WBC has already drawn a line: the Usyk and Kabayel teams have until June 30 before the fight goes to purse bid. That puts pressure on a man who has built a 27-0 record with 19 KO wins and, at 39, still has every major option open if he wants to keep fighting.
Lapin made clear that Kabayel is not being dismissed. He called him an excellent fighter, a worthy champion and someone Team Usyk respects, but said bouts of this size are not made through social media or public pressure. In his view, the fight needs a serious commercial structure, broadcasters and site fee support, and it has to make business sense before anyone signs.
That is the core issue now. Lapin said Usyk has earned the right to weigh every option carefully, and he went further by saying that not fighting again is absolutely on the table. If the numbers and the opportunity make sense, he said, anything is possible. If they do not, there are other paths and other major opportunities available.
There is also a hard edge to the situation that makes the deadline more than a formality. The WBC has ordered Usyk to face Kabayel or give up the WBC title, but that does not guarantee the fight gets made. Usyk and Kabayel were already pushed together in the conversation after Turki Alalshikh backed Kabayel as the next opponent following Usyk’s win over Rico Verhoeven in May, yet the practical question is whether the commercial offer can match the weight of the belt and the name.
Kabayel has done enough to justify the call. He won the interim WBC belt in early 2025 by knocking out Zhilei Zhang in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, then defended it with a TKO over Damian Knyba in Germany on January 10. That gives the matchup sporting logic, but Lapin’s comments show the team is judging it on a different scale: what kind of event can be built, who backs it, and whether the structure is strong enough to justify one more night for a fighter who has already been to the top twice.
For Usyk, the choice now is not just Kabayel or no Kabayel. It is Kabayel, a title vacancy, or retirement, with the clock already running toward June 30. The next concrete answer should come by the end of this week, and it may tell the sport whether one of boxing’s most complete heavyweights is heading back into the ring or has already boxed for the last time.
