Agit Kabayel on Saturday retained the WBC interim heavyweight title and beat his rival Damian Knyba at the Rudolf Weber-Arena in Oberhausen, Germany.“Give me the world title fight, I’m ready,” Kabayel proclaimed after his win.

At the start of the bout, Kabayel struggled to find his rhythm and took several heavy right hands from Knyba. The turning point came in the third round, when the balance of the fight changed completely. 

Kabayel mounted a comeback and brought the match to a close with a decisive knockout in the third round.

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Kabayal, funded by the Erbil-based Kurdistan Foundation, beat the previously undefeated Knyba in front of a 13,000-strong crowd.

“I’m standing for Germany, for Kurdistan, for everyone who has supported me. That’s what makes this moment so emotional and so significant,” Kabayel told Kurdistan Chronicle before the match.

“Biji Kurdistan! (Long live Kurdistan!),” he also shouted after the match. “Greetings to everyone from my homeland. We will never accept what is currently happening in Rojava,” he said, in solidarity with the Kurdish fighters in Aleppo, Western Kurdistan (northern Syria), who were expelled after a heavy five-day battle with Syrian government forces on January 11.

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The battle – in which over 140,000 civilians were displaced and at least 22 killed – has sparked a lot of cross-border Kurdish solidarity, including in Southern Kurdistan (Kurdistan Region of Iraq), where there have been protests in solidarity with Kurds in Syria.

Agit Kabayel was born on September 23, 1992, and is a heavyweight boxer and two-time European champion. He is also related to the German Kurdish rapper KC Rebell.