Agit Kabayel (25-0, 17 KOs) put on a body punching clinic, wearing down heavyweight contender Frank Sanchez (24-1, 17 KOs) and stopping him in the seventh round on Saturday night in a scheduled twelve-round contest at the Kingdom Arena in Saudi Arabia.
Body Punching Clinic
Kabayel’s focus on attacking the body of the talented Cuban Sanchez seemed to drain the fight out of him round after round. Wearing a brace on his right knee, Sanchez needed to fight with his back against the ropes the entire fight for support.
For most of the fight, Sanchez was holding Kabayel, trying to neutralize his offense by tying him up because he couldn’t meet fire with fire. The pace that Kabayel was setting was too much for Sanchez, who looked muscular in his upper body, and right knee looked weak
The Beginning of the End
By the seventh, Sanchez was exhausted from the body shots that Kabayel was landing. Late in the round, Kabayel leaned all his weight on Sanchez, forcing him to support his weight. Sanchez fell to the canvas due to his weak right knee. It was clearly compromised and he wasn’t going to be able to last much longer fighting on that injured wheel.
When Sanchez got to his feet, it was clear that his right knee was in bad shape and could no longer support his weight. Moments later, Kabayel landed a beautiful left to the body of Sanchez that sent him down.
He got up at the count of nine and tried to escape the pressure from Kabayel, but it was no use. Kabayel caught up to Sanchez and landed a straight left jab to his midsection that sent him down for the second time in the round. The referee, Victor Loughlin, then counted Sanchez out at 2:33 of round seven.
It’s unclear what kind of problem Sanchez had with his right knee, but he didn’t didn’t look like the same fighter that had breezed through his last fight.
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