Prime Minister Barzani Congratulates Agit Kabayel on Historic WBC Title
The Kurdistan Region's prime minister Masrour Barzani welcomed the historic title as a proud moment for Kurds worldwide.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani has congratulated Agit Kabayel on becoming the first Kurdish boxer in history to claim the World Boxing Council (WBC) Heavyweight World Championship, hailing the milestone as a defining moment for the Kurdish people.
"I congratulated champion Agit Kabayel on becoming the first Kurdish WBC World Heavyweight Champion," Prime Minister Barzani said.
The prime minister's message follows Kabayel's confirmation that he now holds boxing's most prestigious heavyweight title — a belt vacated by Oleksandr Usyk, who stepped aside rather than delay the division while preparing for what he described as the final fight of his career. As the reigning WBC interim champion and mandatory challenger, Kabayel's path to the full championship opened swiftly once Usyk made his announcement.
The congratulations from The Prime Minister carry particular weight given the relationship the prime minister has already built with the Kurdish-German fighter. During Kabayel's visit to Erbil in April 2025, the prime minister praised his achievements as an example of Kurdish excellence on the international stage and reaffirmed support for athletes representing the Kurdish people abroad.
Kabayel's ascent to the full championship crowns a career built on patience and tactical precision rather than manufactured spectacle. The turning point arrived in February 2025 in Riyadh, where he stopped Chinese heavyweight Zhilei Zhang with a calculated body attack, delivering the decisive liver shot in the sixth round.
He reinforced that performance in January of this year, knocking out previously unbeaten Polish contender Damian Knyba in three rounds in Oberhausen, after which he dedicated the victory to the Kurdish people from inside the ring.
For Kurds worldwide, the title carries a significance that transcends sport. Kabayel — born in Leverkusen to Kurdish parents from Northern Kurdistan (Southeast Türkiye( and raised in Bochum — has consistently presented his identity not as a footnote to his athletic career but as central to it.
His elevation to world champion also makes him the first German heavyweight titlist in nearly a century, restoring a lineage that predates the Klitschko era by generations.
His achievement arrives during what has already become a remarkable summer for Kurdish representation in international sport, with footballer Deniz Undav emerging as one of Germany's standout performers at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Together, the two friends — affectionately known among fans as the "Kurdish Lions of Germany" — have come to embody a convergence of sporting excellence that Kurds across the region and the diaspora have rarely witnessed at this scale.