Agit Kabayel didn’t expect a fight with Damian Knyba to be his reward when he knocked out Zhilei Zhang with a body shot 10½ months ago.

Kabayel became the WBC interim heavyweight champion by beating the powerful Chinese southpaw February 22 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Another impressive victory seemed to perfectly position Kabayel for at least a high-profile fight later in 2025, if not a shot at unbeaten Oleksandr Usyk, then their division’s undisputed champion.

Though thankful for a homecoming fight in Germany on Saturday night, the 33-year-old Kabayel can’t help but think top heavyweights simply don’t want to fight him now that he has knocked out Arslanbek Makhmudov, Frank Sanchez and Zhang in his past three fights. Russia’s Makhmudov and Cuba’s Sanchez were undefeated and Zhang had not been knocked out before Kabayel beat all three of them with brutal body assaults.

“People now give me the name, [they say] Kabayel is the boogeyman of the heavyweight division,” Kabayel said during DAZN’s “On the Ground” segment. “All the guys in the heavyweight division will not fight with me. But, you know, the situation is not easy. Usyk [gave up] the belt and now the WBO champion [is] Fabio Wardley.

“And I don’t know, we will see after my next fight what is the situation, you know? But first I will fight with Damian. And after my fight, maybe we will see what will come in the future.”

Poland’s Knyba, who stands 6-foot-8, is unbeaten but unproven at the championship level entering a 12-round interim title fight DAZN will stream from Rudolf Weber-Arena in Oberhausen. DAZN’s coverage of the Kabayel-Knyba undercard is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. GMT in the United Kingdom and 1 p.m. ET in the United States.

Kabayel (26-0, 18 KOs), The Ring’s No. 2 contender for Usyk’s crown, is a 20-1 favorite to beat Knyba (17-0, 11 KOs) according to DraftKings. He hopes an impressive start to 2026 helps him secure the type of historically significant fight he wanted when he knocked out the 6-foot-6, 287-pound Zhang (27-3-1, 22 KOs).

“It is my dream,” Kabayel said. “I’m so close, I’m the interim world champion. This was always my dream. When I was a small kid, when I started boxing, the people say in Germany, ‘Kabayel will never be a German champion.’ You know? But now you see I was two-time European champion. Now I am the WBC interim champion. I’m so close for the world title shot."