Reigning EBU heavyweight champ Agit Kabayel finally showed his true colors on the ‘Day of Reckoning’ event last Saturday in Saudi Arabia, when he took apart Russian giant Aslanbek Makhmudov and stopped him inside four rounds.
Kabayel turned pro back in 2011 fighting on smaller events in Germany and was also a regular on the Bigger is Better Tournament that featured a mix of active pro fighters and martial arts artists fighting in a three round tournament with the rules that apply in professional boxing. Kabayel went 2-2 in this tournament but for some reason BoxRec has excluded all of the fights from these tournaments.
Kaabyel won his first title in 2014 when he beat Gbenga Oloukun on a disputed split decision with the WBC Mediterranean title at stake.
It wasn’t until 2016 when Agit signed with SES that his career seemed to take off – but even after a big win over Derek Chisora – he was still unable to secure bigger breaks. Winning the EBU title twice, and signing with Top Rank in the United States, didn’t seem to help.
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic and the fight against Makhmudov was Kabayel’s sixth in five years – and for the first time in his career he abandoned his careful safety-first approach and went all out with his offense – with a splendid result and we now have a genuine world class contender (even if some might argue that Makhmudov was overrated).
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Danish official Ove Ovesen has passed away at the age of 86. Ove was a good amateur fighter in his day with over 100 fights but it was as a judge and referee he made his marks in professional boxing. The refereeing was kept at a national level but as a judge Ovesen representing the WBA traveled the world for decades and was involved in many top class fights such as Hagler vs Duran, Arguello vs Pryor, McCallum vs Curry and countless others big fights and always doing well. Ove was also a TV commentator and a boxing historian.
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Also gone is Pole Janusz Gortat, who passed away at the age of 75. Gortat won bronze in the Olympic Games in 1972 and 1976. Both times he lost in the semi-final to the future gold medal winner. In 1972 that was Yugoslavian Mate Parlov, who became a world champ in the pros and in 1976 it was one Leon Spinks.