Agit Kabayel TKO3 Damian Knyba... Fighting in his native Oberhausen, Germany, heavyweight contender Agit Kabayel retained the WBC interim championship by stopping Poland's Damian Knyba in the third round. The referee stopped the fight too soon, as Knyba never left his feet and Kabayel's punches were not all landing cleanly. However, Kabayel likely would have prevailed sooner or later regardless of the referee's actions. Knyba's legs were already wobbly and he seemed discouraged because after a good first round and a half, Kabayel had made the necessary adjustments and figured out the winning strategy. Besides making Kabayel the consensus top contender in the heavyweight division, this was also an important fight for the business of boxing: Kabayel sold out a good-sized arena, and no doubt Germany will host more big fights, the way it used to in the heyday of the Klitschko Brothers and Arthur Abraham. The undefeated Kabayel hopes the economics will also support bringing world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk to Germany for a stadium fight. We shall see, but for now, Kabayel should be proud of himself for taking out a previously undefeated heavyweight. He's on a run of defeating Arslanbek Makhmudov, Frank Sanchez, Zhilei Zhang and now Knyba to run his record to 27-0.

DAZN Sports News wrote: "Fighting in front of an electric atmosphere at the sold-out Rudolf Weber Arena, Kabayel was able to negotiate a confident start from Knyba before landing the final blows in round three.  After eating several Kabayel right hands, Knyba was put out of his misery by referee Mark Lyson who stopped the contest with under 30 seconds remaining in the third session."