Agit Kabayel is honored to bring a big boxing show back to Germany. Admittedly, though, it wasn’t necessarily his first option – or at least his first thought.
Ever the loyalist, the unbeaten Kabayel was eager to return to a Riyadh Season show, having elevated his career to new heights through that connection. Instead, he gladly welcomes a headlining act in Oberhausen, mere minutes from his Bochum hometown. The 33-year-old top-rated heavyweight will defend his WBC interim title against Poland’s Damian Knyba this Saturday on DAZN from Rudolf Weber-Arena.
“It wasn’t a big surprise when it happened, since it’s something we discussed for a while,” Kabayel told BoxingScene. “However, I thought I would get another fight in Riyadh first; that was my primary goal.
“Turki Alalshikh took a big chance on me as the underdog and I rewarded him with three big wins in a row. My position now at heavyweight would not be possible without Riyadh Season and what they’ve done for my career.”
Kabayel, 26-0 (18 KOs), is widely regarded as the top heavyweight contender to unified and lineal champion Oleksandr Usyk, 24-0 (15 KOs). He surged to that placement following a trio of knockout wins over Arslanbek Makhmudov, Frank Sanchez and Zhilei Zhang, all in Riyadh and at a time when all three were considered top 10 contenders.
The three spectacular wins took place in the span of 14 months, all of which followed 12 years of toiling in relative obscurity.
Now, Kabayel gets to return home as a celebrated heavyweight, a far different status from when he last fought in Germany nearly three years ago.
Knyba, 17-0 (11 KOs), represents a suitable opponent considering the amount of time Kabayel was forced to wait between fights. He has not been in the ring since his 6th round knockout of Zhang last February 22 in Riyadh, with the downtime spent celebrating the birth of his child while also waiting on in-ring opportunities that otherwise failed to materialize.
“Time passed along, and I also became a father while waiting for my next fight,” Kabayel explained. “Other options came up that we agreed to, but never heard back. They asked us if we were interested in fighting [then-IBF heavyweight titlist Daniel] Dubois. We said yes, we can do that. They must’ve reconsidered because it never came back up.
“We discussed other options. We as a team then said that I need my own market if I want to become a big star. I can’t rely on external markets. The best thing to do while waiting on a big fight was to return to Germany and test the market here. We want to show that Germany is still a big heavyweight destination.”
While it resulted in just one fight in 2025, Kabayel and Queensberry Promotions have far loftier goals for the year ahead. The one near-absolute is that – no matter the result on Saturday – his next fight won’t come against Usyk, who is currently pondering a showdown with faded former WBC heavyweight titlist Deontay Wilder.
The good news is that Kabayel is willing to take on literally anyone else as he awaits his shot at the true championship crown.
The only thing he doesn’t want to do again, is wait.
“I hope this leads to three fights this year,” noted Kabayel. “It’s good that we are starting early, though truthfully only because we couldn’t fight in December due to a conflict with arena football. But I am always in shape, I take my training seriously and ready to fight as often as my team is able to get me in the ring.”
Saturday’s card also provides his team with a test run to prove that they can bring a big event to Germany, something that hasn’t been the case in years.
There has been the occasional title fight, though few and far between. The majority of the shows these days are topped by rising prospects in search of contention, or fighters either biding their time while awaiting a title fight or on the comeback trail.
Either way, it’s a far cry from where things were a decade or more ago, prior to the end of the Klitschko brothers’ respective heavyweight title reigns.
“Boxing was really big in Germany, but it’s become a small market because we haven’t been delivering our fans the best and most interesting matchups,” admits Kabayel. “The big question is whether the boxing market out here is still alive.
“It’s pressure, but a good pressure for me. Nobody believed that I could sell out an arena; nobody certainly thought we could sell out this arena in five days.”
It provides hope that there exists a viable alternative if Kabayel can’t immediately make his way back to an Alalshikh-funded show.
The timing is important, given the current hot state of the heavyweight division. Of course, it will still require the cooperation of just not his divisional peers, but those who are in position to force the best to face each other.
“Riyadh Season brough big time fights back to the division made the world take notice,” noted Kabayel. “It’s now up to the WBC and the other organizations to make great fights possible, to order big fights that people want to see. It’s very important for the best fighters to get opportunities, not just the most famous fighters.
“It’s fine for the better-known fighters to get the TV dates or whatever. Just not for our belts, at the cost of those of us who’ve earned the right to fight for the championship. If not, we will never get to the next generation of top fighters.”
