By Jim Calfa: In ‘Rocky’ movie type of fight, unbeaten fringe heavyweight contender Agit Kabayel (23-0, KOs) had to get up off the deck in the second round to come back and stop Croatian fighter Agron Smakici (19-2, 17 KOs) to capture the vacant EBU title at the Ruhrcongress in Bochum, Germany.
The twelve-year pro Kabayel, who is from Germany, was close to being stopped after the 6’6″ Smakici, who resembles British fighter David Price in build and fighting style, unloaded a flurry of shots in the second round that sent the badly hurt Agit falling into the ropes.
Given the ropes held Kabayel up, the referee ruled it a knockdown. The southpaw Smakici continued to unload on Kabayel for the remainder of the round, hitting him with repeated left hands to the head that he did not attempt to block.
Surprisingly, Kabayel made it out of the round, but only due to Smakici’s lack of power and the fact that he’d punched himself out. In the third round, Kabayel took advantage of the 32-year-old Smakici’s fatigue by taking the fight to him on the inside, nailing him with shots to the head.
At one point, Kabayel wrestled the exhausted Smakici to the ground and then laid on top of him like a wrestler. It was odd-looking, to say the least, from a top-tier ranked heavyweight.
When the action resumed, Kabayel continued to pummel the tired Smakici with shots, and walked through his return fire. The exhausted Smakici was throwing wild shots, missing badly, and getting hit repeatedly with head-snapping punches from the better-conditioned Kabayel.
What was interesting is that Smakici was more tired than hurt throughout the whole round. He was exhausted from the energy that he was forced to expend due to the pace that Kabayel had set, and he couldn’t keep up.
You can argue that if Smakici had a better engine, he would have easily finished Kabayel in the third because he was there to be knocked out. Kabayel had no defense, zero power, and little in the way of skills, and yet he dominated the exhausted Smakici because he was too tired to stay in the fight in the third.
The undefeated Kabayel is ranked IBF #8, WBO #11, and WBA #13. However, the way that he looked, he doesn’t belong in the top tier of the heavyweight division in this writer’s estimation.
It’s unclear what the end game is for Kabayel in his career, considering he’s been fighting for a long time and is ranked in the top 15 by three of the sanctioning bodies.
If he wants to fight for a world title one day, he’s going to need to fight an actual contender at some point because he’s fighting ham & eggers, and those guys aren’t going to get him pushed up the rankings to where he gets noticed by one of the champions.
All in all, not an impressive performance by Kabayel. Yeah, he won the fight, but only because of Smakici’s poor conditioning. Against a true top-tier heavyweight, Kabayel would be quickly stopped in two or three rounds.
Unless one of the heavyweight champions chooses to give Kabayel an undeserved title shot one day, he’ll likely stay at the European level, fighting the guys in the EBU rankings rather than mixing it up with contenders in the top 15.
Kabayel ranked above these heavyweights:
Luis Ortiz
Martin Bakole
Tony Yoka
Zhilei Zhang
Otto Wallin
Fabio Wardley
Ivan Dychko
Dillian Whyte
Murat Gassiev
This writer can’t see Kabayel beating any of these top-tier ranked heavyweights, and disappointing, the sanctioning bodies have him ranked above them. From Kabayel’s performance last Saturday night against Smakici, he’d be wiped out by all of those guys, and it wouldn’t be competitive.
The only notable win on Kabayel’s 12-year resume was an upset 12 round majority decision victory over an out-of-shape journeyman Derek Chisora in November 2017 in Monaco.
Chisora looked fat at 254 lbs, and it was clear that he wasn’t in his best shape for that fight. Kabayel, who typically fights at a fast pace, took advantage of Chisora’s poor conditioning to outwork him to get an ugly decision.