Agit Kabayel defeats Zhilei Zhang by knockdown and is crowned WBC Interim World Champion.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Agit Kabayel (26-0, 18 knockouts) secured a knockout victory over Zhilei Zhang (27-3-1, 22 knockouts) in spectacular fashion after being floored himself in round five. The fight took place on the undercard of the highly anticipated rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
The unbeaten German showed right from the start that he had the Chinese southpaw figured out. Kabayel dominated the action in the ring as early as the fourth round. But Zhang landed a short but precise left hand in round five that sent Kabayel to the floor. However, the 31-year-old from Bochum recovered quickly, got up again quickly and showed no signs of weakness.
Undeterred by the knockdown, Kabayel took control again in the sixth round. He boxed Zhang hard with clever boxing, repeatedly hitting him with hard left and right hooks to the body. The referee seemed on the verge of stopping the fight when Zhang held his stomach. While Zhang remained on his feet, Kabayel followed up and hit the Chinese fighter again with a precise right hand to the pit of the stomach. Zhang then sank to his knees and shook his head, signaling that he would not continue. Referee Mark Lyson counted Zhang out and ended the fight after 2:29 minutes in the sixth round. With this impressive victory, Kabayel celebrated his third consecutive knockout win in Saudi Arabia.
After impressive victories over Arslanbek Makhmudov, Frank Sanchez and now Zhang, Kabayel has finally catapulted himself into the elite of the heavyweight division. As the crowning glory of the evening, he was presented with the WBC interim world title by none other than Oleksandr Usyk, the current WBC, WBA and WBO world champion. This triumph puts Kabayel in a promising position for a future world heavyweight championship fight.