Against all odds, Agit Kabayel continues his winning streak in the heavyweight division, also defeating Poland’s Damian Knyba early. Will the interim WBC champion now get his duel with world champion Oleksandr Usyk?
Agit Kabayel didn’t even need three full rounds on Saturday evening in the Rudolf Weber Arena in Oberhausen to give the boxing world further proof of his enormous ability. The interim WBC world champion defeated his challenger Damian Knyba on his “homecoming” by technical knockout after 2:36 minutes in the third. Referee Mark Lyson stopped the duel prematurely in front of 13,000 enthusiastic spectators after Kabayel had scored a number of effective punches, causing Knyba to stagger badly.
“Hands made of concrete”
However, not everything went according to plan in Oberhausen at first. In the first round, the “Leberking” didn’t really find his feet against the ten centimeter taller Knyba and also suffered a cut to his eye. “I was a bit frozen there,” admitted Kabayel afterwards. “I just wasn’t completely there in the first round.” In fact, the backdrop and the atmosphere had impressed the 33-year-old more than expected.
“At that point, I didn’t think Agit would finish the fight so quickly,” coach Sükrü Aksu told BOXSPORT. During the break between rounds, he set his protégé straight and told him: “He’s not in our league. If you want to become world champion, you have to clean him up.” Kabayel did just that, literally crushing the “Polish Hussar” and ending the duel with hard and precise hooks to the head. “Knyba came into our dressing room afterwards and said Agit had hands made of concrete,” reported Aksu.
“Don’t I deserve the fight?”
However, it remains doubtful whether Kabayel will now get the world championship fight he is aiming for as quickly as he won against Knyba. The undefeated Ruhrpott hero has long been the mandatory challenger for WBC champion Oleksandr Usyk, but the latter is still making no move to face Kabayel. Instead, Usyk is said to prefer a fight against former world champion Deontay Wilder in the USA next. “We have made a statement. We have shown that German boxing is alive,” explained Kabayel in the Ring interview after his T.K.O. victory in Oberhausen. And called out to his fans: “If I could choose: We are now ready for the World Championships!”
Potential challengers such as Lawrence Okolie and Tony Yoka also convinced themselves of this in the Rudolf Weber Arena. Tyson Fury and Filip Hrgovic are also being touted as possible opponents for the German heavyweight king with Kurdish roots. But Kabayel is not interested in them. “I have defeated three world-class boxers. Makhmudov, Sanchez and Zhang. And now the unbeaten Knyba,” he clarified. “That’s no disrespect to Yoka, Okolie and co. But don’t I deserve the fight against Usyk?”
Against Usyk in Germany
That’s why his team wants to put further pressure on the association. In the run-up to the homecoming, Kabayel promoter George Warren (Queensberry) had already promised that he would now “put a lot of pressure on the WBC to give Agit the chance to win the title”. Manager Spencer Brown takes a similar view, calling on the association to finally follow its statutes and realize the Kabayel vs. Preferably in Germany, because “the largest Ukrainian community outside Ukraine lives here”. Brown has a large stadium in mind. The Schalke Arena in Gelsenkirchen, with a capacity of more than 60,000, would be suitable for this. “If the atmosphere is like here in Oberhausen, then it could be one of the best crowd experiences of all time” – and Agit Kabayel could finally become the first German heavyweight world champion since Max Schmeling.
Text: Frank Schwantes