The German boxer Agit Kabayel has won the European heavyweight title for the second time in his hometown of Bochum. After a brief but intense exchange of blows, the 30-year-old defeated Croatian Agron Smakici by technical knockout in the third of twelve scheduled rounds.
The German boxer Agit Kabayel has won the European heavyweight title for the second time in his hometown of Bochum. After a brief but intense exchange of blows, the 30-year-old defeated Croatian Agron Smakici by technical knockout in the third of twelve scheduled rounds.
In doing so, he secured the award from the European continental association EBU on Saturday in the RuhrCongress Hall and improved the prospects of a future World Championship title fight. “I’m ready for the World Cup,” said Kabayel after the duel. “Today I showed that I can take a little bit instead of just handing it out.” He described the fight as “good publicity for boxing”.
The 107-kilogram professional boxer started the fight a little nervously. He got in better in the second lap, but then suffered a flurry of punches that sent him briefly onto the ropes. The local hero, who was badly hit in the right eye, came back impressively in the third lap with loud “Agit” shouts and put the Croatian under increasing pressure until the 110-kilogram opponent lost.
The “Ruhrpott boy” Kabayel, who grew up in Bochum, had already held the EBU European title between 2017 and 2019. Before the fight, he was already in the top 13 in his weight class in the world rankings of the three boxing associations IBF (8th), WBO (11th) and WBA (13th).
The fight was also marked by the earthquake disaster in Turkey, as Kabayel had to accept the loss of two relatives who are among the more than 50,000 dead. The income from fan shirts sold will benefit needy people in the earthquake region.
Source: Stern
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