Agit Kabayel has issued a statement after being made to wait until the 11th hour for confirmation on Oleksandr Usyk’s championship status.

The mandatory challenger has held his WBC ‘interim’ title since February 2025, back when he stopped Zhilei Zhang with a punishing sixth-round body onslaught.

Since then, Kabayel has been clamouring for his rightful shot at the full title, while keeping himself busy with a third-round finish over Damian Knyba last January.

The WBC then finally ordered Usyk to defend his belt against the unbeaten German, shortly after the Ukrainian’s 11th-round stoppage of Rico Verhoeven last month.

Both sides were given a deadline of June 30 to negotiate a deal, otherwise their mandated fight would go to purse bids.

It has now been confirmed by Usyk himself, however, that he has decided to relinquish his WBC, IBF and WBA heavyweight titles.

The 39-year-old announced this news via a social media post on Friday, but insisted that he will remain in the sport for at least one more fight.

In response, Kabayel took to Instagram to congratulate Usyk on a phenomenal career, despite having been made to wait all this time for an announcement.

“A true champion is defined by his actions both inside and outside the ring. Usyk has won everything there is to win, fighting the best and proving his greatness time and again.

“By putting down the belts, he once again shows his class. He isn’t holding the division back – he’s giving the next generation its chance.

“Of course, I wanted to share the ring with him one day, but I have nothing but respect for everything he has achieved. I wish him and his family nothing but the best.

“I hope I’ll be there for your last dance and have the chance to pay tribute to an outstanding career. From today on, I’ll stop pushing the horses … Because one thing is certain: I am ready to take over.”

Advertisement

As the WBC ‘interim’ champion, Kabayel will secure a shot at the vacant world title in his next outing, which is likely to arrive against the next available contender later this year.

Jamie George has criticised his Saracen’s team-mate Totoa Auvaa’s “unacceptable” behaviour after the Samoan was involved in a nightclub incident with England cricket captain Ben Stokes and bowler Gus Atkinson.

Stand-in England rugby captain George, who has 110 caps, said the academy player is like “a rabbit in the headlights in London” and the 21-year-old “doesn’t know right from wrong” but insisted he was a “good kid”.

Earlier this week, Saracens said forward Auvaa would not face any formal sanctions following their own investigation into the incident on 8 June.

They said while the incident was “regrettable for all parties involved” the Prem Rugby club “remains supportive of the player”.

England cricket captain Stokes and bowler Atkinson breached their team’s midnight curfew when they were out celebrating victory in the first Test earlier this month.

They were present when a member of England’s security staff was left bloodied and in need of medical attention when he was struck by Auvaa.

“He’s a young kid who has only left Samoa once,” George, 35, was quoted as saying by The Times and The Telegraph.

“He is immature. He is a rabbit in the headlights in London. He’s a good kid, but he’s got it wrong. There’s no disputing that. But we need to make sure that we establish that sort of behaviour is unacceptable.

“There’s also a bit of me that thinks we’ve got to look after him because he doesn’t know right from wrong at the minute.

“We’ll look after him. We will make sure that he’s got role models around him.”

Stoke and Atkinson were made unavailable for England’s second Test defeat pending an inquiry into events.

A disciplinary hearing by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) found Stokes and Atkinson had breached “contractual obligations” but were blameless for “violent conduct” and the pair were given a written warning with no further action.

A separate inquiry by the Cricket Regulator found there was no case to answer because of insufficient evidence.

“No blame should be attached to the players for violent conduct at the nightclub,” said the ECB.

“Stokes was not involved in the altercation and did not witness either incident.

“The evidence the ECB has seen demonstrates that Atkinson was the victim of unprovoked attacks and did not retaliate on either occasion.”

Saracens criticised the ECB for not involving them in the process.

Croatia and Ghana will clash in Group L to decide who joins England into the 2026 World Cup knockout stage.

England missed out on the chance to top the group with a game to spare when they were held to a drab goalless draw by Ghana last time out, but will be expected to seal first place against already-eliminated Panama after having their progression confirmed by results elsewhere.

Everything is still all to play for between Croatia and Ghana, though, with it very much possible that both progress to the round of 32.

Their match will kick-off simultaneously with England’s at 10pm on Saturday 27 June, which could allow for some seismic shifts in the standings if Panama do manage to stun Thomas Tuchel’s men.

Here’s everything you need to know about Group L’s knockout round permutations:

What do Croatia need to qualify?

Croatia will feel they must avoid defeat to progress to ensure they don’t suffer an early elimination from this year’s tournament, which would act as a damning fall from grace following a semi-final finish in 2022 and a stunning run to the final in 2018.

A win will see them leapfrog Ghana into second while a draw will be enough for them to finish among the eight-best third-placed teams.

What do Ghana need to qualify?

Ghana are already into the round of 32 after racking up four points from their first two games, meaning they will at the very least go through in third. Any result other than defeat, however, will ensure they finish in the top two.

If they manage to record a heavy win over Croatia and England don’t do the same against Panama, then they may even top the group. That would be an attractive proposition given that Portugal may await Group L’s runner-up.

Head-to-head prominence over goal difference

If teams finish on the same number of points their standing in the group will be determined by the head-to-head record against the nation they are level with. If one team tied on points with another has beaten them in the group stage, the winners will finish higher up the table.

Where multiple teams are level on points, a mini-league is created, removing the results against the remaining teams. Those tied teams are ranked by points won in the games involving each other, then by goal difference, followed by goals scored. If that does not split them, the next criteria is goal difference followed by goals scored for the group overall.

Any other tiebreakers?

If teams are still level on points following head-to-head results, goal difference and goals scored then the Team Conduct Score (TCS) comes into play. It is basically a fair play score and is rated based on the amount of cards a team has collected. Each team, including managers and backroom staff, started on zero and were deducted points throughout the group stage as follows:

The closer to zero, the better the score. If the teams are still level, whoever had the higher Fifa ranking in June’s published update will go through.

How are the top eight third place finishers determined?

The top eight third place finishers will be decided on which teams have accumulated the most points.

Should eight or more nations finish third with the same number of points, the nations who progress will then be determined by goal difference.

In all likelihood, teams that finish third with four points or higher will go through, the teams on three points will need the best possible goal difference to progress.

Oleksandr Usyk has made a major decision regarding his unified heavyweight world titles.

Usyk is a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion, but he was left with the WBC, WBA and IBF belts after vacating his WBO title late last year.

The Ukrainian was last in action in May when he was involved in a surprisingly competitive affair with kickboxing star Rico Verhoeven, but with a queue of mandatory challengers now building, Usyk had to act quick to decide his next move.

He has now finally revealed what he plans to do, posting on social media to make the huge announcement that he will be vacating all of his titles.

“Today is Friday, the weather is beautiful and It’s a good day to say that I want to vacate all the belts I currently hold. I want to make them available to the guys next in line who can fight for them.”

Despite vacating his titles, Usyk confirmed he isn’t retiring and will still fight again.

“I’m leaving the belts but I’m not leaving the sport because I still have a last dance. I have great respect for the organisations and I want to thank them. There’s more to come.”

It should now lead to Agit Kabayel being elevated from WBC interim champion to full champion, while WBA Regular champion Murat Gassiev may receive the same treatment.

In the IBF rankings, Frank Sanchez is placed at number one, while Moses Itauma and Filip Hrgovic are ranked at 3 and 4 respectively ahead of their clash in August, so could also benefit from Usyk’s decision.

As for the Ukrainian, with no governing bodies to answer to, it could pave the way for a rematch with Verhoeven after their meeting last month.

Cape Verde did not win a match in Group H. They did not score freely, overwhelm opponents or turn the World Cup into a tactical exhibition. Yet, when the final whistle went against Saudi Arabia, the island nation had done something far bigger than victory.

They had survived.

A 0-0 draw against Saudi Arabia on Friday completed one of the most improbable group-stage runs of the 2026 Fifa World Cup. Cape Verde finished second in Group H with three draws from three matches, behind Spain, and became the smallest nation ever to reach the knockout stage of a men’s World Cup.

For a country of around 525,000 people, spread across 10 islands off the west coast of Africa, it was a moment that stretched far beyond football. Cape Verde, a Portuguese colony until 1975, were already one of the smallest nations to qualify for the tournament. Now, on debut, they are in the Round of 32.

Their reward is as daunting as it is glamorous: Lionel Messi’s Argentina in Miami on July 3.

A $63 million side in a billion-dollar world

The scale of Cape Verde’s achievement becomes sharper when viewed against the financial map of world football.

According to Transfermarkt squad values used in the comparison, Cape Verde’s squad is valued at $63.2 million. Argentina’s squad, their next opponent, is valued at $936.7 million. France, the most valuable squad in the tournament, stands at $1.76 billion.

That means Argentina’s squad is nearly 15 times more valuable than Cape Verde’s. France’s squad is almost 28 times bigger in value.

But the World Cup has always allowed room for stories that cannot be priced on a spreadsheet. Cape Verde’s campaign is one of them.

  The contrast is brutal. But so is the beauty of Football World Cup. Cape Verde did not arrive as a commercial force. They arrived as a team, and then refused to leave.

Cape Verde’s route was not built on fortune alone.

They reached the World Cup by winning their African qualification group, finishing ahead of Cameroon, a regular name in World Cup history. They did not come through the back door of intercontinental playoffs. They earned their place.

Once at the tournament, they did not play like tourists either. They held Spain, the European champions, to a 0-0 draw. They came from behind to draw 2-2 against Uruguay. Then, with qualification on the line, they held Saudi Arabia 0-0.

It was not always pretty. Against Saudi Arabia, Laros Duarte and Garry Rodrigues had chances to win it for Cape Verde, but neither side produced the quality to turn the game decisively. Saudi Arabia offered little in attack, while Cape Verde’s promising moves often lost sharpness near the penalty area.

Still, the point was enough. In a group that included Spain and Uruguay, Cape Verde finished second.

Spain top Group H, Uruguay crash out

While Cape Verde were making history, Spain were doing what elite sides are expected to do. Their 1-0 win over Uruguay secured top spot in Group H with seven points and sent the two-time world champions home without a win.

Alex Baena scored in the 42nd minute after Uruguay goalkeeper Fernando Muslera failed to properly deal with his shot from inside the area. It was another costly error in a difficult tournament for the 40-year-old, who was taken off at half-time by Marcelo Bielsa.

Uruguay, ranked 19th by Fifa, became the highest-ranked team to be eliminated from the tournament so far. For a side with their history and pedigree, three winless group games represented a painful exit.

Spain, meanwhile, will face the runner-up from Group J in Inglewood, California, on July 2. Cape Verde will head to Miami for Argentina.

The Messi test awaits

Cape Verde’s story has already made World Cup history. Argentina, however, represent a different level of examination.

Messi’s side are expected to finish top of Group J and will enter the Round of 32 as heavy favourites. Argentina’s squad value, experience and recent World Cup pedigree all dwarf Cape Verde’s. The defending champions are chasing another deep run, and the draw appears to have given them a manageable opening knockout fixture.

If Argentina beat Cape Verde, they could face either Australia or Belgium in the Round of 16, depending on the final bracket. A potential quarterfinal meeting with Portugal remains possible if both Argentina and Portugal top their groups and then win their first two knockout matches.

That would bring Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo together at a World Cup for the first time. Given Messi is 39 and Ronaldo is 41, it could also be the last chance for football’s most defining rivalry to appear on this stage.

Vozinha becomes unlikely face of a miracle

No Cape Verde story at this World Cup is complete without Vozinha.

The goalkeeper has become one of the tournament’s most unlikely cult figures. His rise has been part performance, part personality and part the kind of emotional thread that World Cups produce better than any other sporting event.

Fans have carried placards of his face. One young supporter held a sign reading, “In Vozinha we trust”. Others painted his name across their torsos. His mother was in the stands again after visa issues had reportedly forced her to miss Cape Verde’s 0-0 draw against Spain.

The scale of attention is extraordinary for a player who turned professional only at 26, played last season in the Portuguese second tier, and nearly retired from international football after being dropped from the squad during an unsuccessful Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign.

Whatever happens against Argentina, Vozinha and Cape Verde will remember the summer of 2026.

More than an expanded-format story

It would be easy to reduce Cape Verde’s run to a product of the expanded 48-team format. That would be unfair.

Yes, the 2026 World Cup gives more nations access and keeps more teams alive through the third-place route. But Cape Verde did not need the third-place safety net. They finished second in their group.

They qualified directly from African competition. They avoided defeat against three World Cup opponents. They held Spain, fought back against Uruguay, and did enough against Saudi Arabia when the pressure was at its heaviest.

Argentina next, but Cape Verde already belong

The match against Argentina may prove too steep. Messi, even at 39, remains the tournament’s biggest gravitational force. Argentina are deeper, richer and more battle-hardened. Cape Verde’s $63.2 million squad now faces a side valued at nearly $1 billion.

But Cape Verde have already changed the terms of their tournament.

They arrived as debutants. They leave the group stage as history-makers. They did not need a win, a superstar forward or a billion-dollar squad to reach the knockouts. They needed discipline, belief, resilience and just enough nerve to keep drawing when the World Cup demanded they fall.

Now they go to Miami, where the smallest nation ever to reach the men’s World Cup knockouts will stand opposite Messi’s Argentina.

On paper, it should be no contest. But Cape Verde’s World Cup has already proved that paper can be a poor witness to football’s most improbable stories.

The best golfers have short memories. The worst golf fans don’t. Matt Fitzpatrick found that out last week at Shinnecock Hills.

Paired with Wyndham Clark in the third round of the U.S. Open, Fitzpatrick was struck by the volume and intensity of spectator abuse hurled at the eventual tournament winner.

Fitzpatrick’s not naive. He knows that Clark has done himself no favors with assorted displays of bad behavior, none more notorious than his locker-wrecking outburst after missing the cut at last year’s U.S. Open.

“I’m not condoning what he did at Oakmont,” Fitzpatrick told GOLF’s Subpar podcast this week. “It was not really the smartest thing to do.”

Still, he figured the outrage would fade.

“Part of me thought, give it two to three months and everyone would forget about it and you’d never hear about it again,” Fitzpatrick said.

He was wrong. Turns out fans’ memories are long.

“Since you’ve been out there, do you remember a time where fans were as hard on a guy throughout the entire event as they were with Wyndham Clark this week?” podcast co-host Drew Stoltz asked.

Fitzpatrick said he didn’t. And called it “unfair.”

As a veteran of four Ryder Cups, Fitzpatrick has, of course, heard heckling before. He has also encountered it in stroke-play competitions. Battling Scottie Scheffler down the stretch at the RBC Heritage in April, Fitzpatrick triumphed in the face of fans who barked at his ball to get in the bunker. But the scene at Shinnecock, he said, was different.

“Having an American fan base root against an American player is odd,” Fitzpatrick said.

No matter the format, Fitzpatrick noted, the best way to deal with haters is to put on blinders — not to mention earplugs — and play your best. On that front, he said, Clark impressed him with his shot-making and his comportment.

“The guy’s leading the tournament, making putts, doing what he needed to do,” Fitzpatrick said. “Every time on Saturday, he was faultless.”

The following afternoon, after hoisting the trophy, Clark said he hoped he’d won a few fans over. Maybe he has. For now, he’s got Fitzpatrick in his camp.

“I’ve spent a little time with Wyndham,” Fitzpatrick said. “I really like him. I think he’s a good guy.”

You can listen to the entire episode here or watch it on YouTube below.

“>

England have qualified for the World Cup 2026 knockout stages after results in other groups went their way on Friday night.

Thomas Tuchel’s side are top of Group L on four points, following an impressive opening win against Croatia and then a 0-0 stalemate against Ghana on Tuesday night.

The format of the 48-team World Cup, however, meant England’s place in the round of 32 was secured ahead of playing Panama in their final fixture on Saturday.

England are guaranteed to finish in the top three places of Group L, with Panama already eliminated due to the head-to-head tiebreaker following defeats to Ghana and Croatia.

And, with four points, England only needed the third-place team in four of the 12 groups to finish on three points or fewer.

There were already two before Friday night: South Korea in Group A and Scotland in Group C, whose hopes of progression were meanwhile solely reliant on other third-placed teams not breaking the three-point barrier.

And after Senegal battered Iraq 5-0 to come third in Group I with three points on the board, Uruguay were dumped out of Group H following a 1-0 loss to Spain. Those results mean that England have had their progression into the knockouts assured before kicking a ball in their Group L finale.

Who will England face in the round of 32 if they top Group L?

England still have work to do to top Group L, and will do so if they beat Panama and better Ghana’s result against Croatia.

Since England and Ghana drew 0-0, it would come down to goal difference to determine who finishes top if they are level on points. Ghana could overhaul England if they beat Croatia by a big scoreline.

An England win, combined with a draw between Ghana and Croatia, or a Croatia win, would confirm top spot.

In that scenario, they will face the third-place team from one of Group I/J/K in the round of 32. As things stand, these are the teams that could be in the mix to face the Three Lions: It is likely to be Senegal.

Who will England face in the knockouts if they finish as runners-up?

If England were to finish as group runners-up, they will face the second-placed team from Group K – that will be decided in a shootout between Colombia and Portugal. If Colombia avoid defeat, it would be Portugal – assuming DR Congo don’t win by a massive scoreline against Uzbekistan.

What is England’s route to the final?

In the last-16, England could face Group A winners Mexico in the high-altitude cauldron of the Estadio Azteca.

If they overcame that serious test of resolve, Group C winners Brazil could be their quarter-final opponent.

Argentina, following a fine start with Lionel Messi’s five goals, may then be their potential semi-final opposition.