Zsolt Erdei: Champion of a Proud People.

Stretching from Mongolia to Eastern Europe, the Eurasian steppes spawned many robust tribes throughout the centuries such as the Cimmerians, Scythians, Samartians, Mongols, Tartars, Huns, Hephthalites and Magyars. Lacking the natural resources to sustain their growing

hordes, they spread out in all directions, destroying, assimilating or merging with existing societies and eventually settling into the new lands. This is the case with the Magyars, who first lived in an area called Magna Hungaria in the Urals but slowly wandered westward, often being pushed by newer waves of migrating legions, during the 6th to 9th centuries before the eventually settled into the Carpathian basin led by the Pagan chief Arpád, and once again drove out or absorbed the existing residents. Around 1000 AD, under the excellent leadership of Vajk, the various tribes of the area unified and he brought in several reforms to organize Hungary into a feudal state, even converting these ardent Pagans into Christianity. Vajk was renamed King Stephen by Pope Silvester II and the foundation charter of Hungary was drawn up on the northern shore of Lake Balaton, thus becoming the earliest written record extant in the Hungarian language. One thousand years later, a second Magyar swarm has descended as wave after wave of world class boxers are emerging from the Hungarian nation. The forefather was Laszlo Papp who won Gold Medals at three consecutive Olympics (1948, 1952, 1956) before racking up a professional record of 27-0-2 (15). Papp’s world title aspirations were cut short by the Communist regime that revoked his privilege to travel abroad, thus ending his chance of a title shot, and the hopes of a nation.

They had to wait another forty years before their next hero materialized when Istvan “Ko-Ko” Kovacs won the Gold Medal in Atlanta 1996, improving on his Bronze in Barcelona ’92. Ko-Ko swept through the professional ranks, picking up the European title before stopping Antonio “Chelo” Diaz for the WBO featherweight title, vacated by “Prince” Naseem Hamed to move to 20-0 (10) and become Hungary’s first world champion. Just when he was on the cusp of the big fights, disaster struck in the form of the tough Argentinean Julio Pablo Chacon, who battered “Ko-Ko” to defeat in six brutal rounds. After two more bouts against mediocre opposition, Kovacs retired but his legacy lives on in a new batch of Hungarian prospects such as Oliver Rubin, Karoly Balzsay, József Nagy, Mihaly Kotai, Attila Kovacs, Peter Zimmermann, Janos Nagy, András Meszáros, Zsolt Nagy and the current best of the crop, Zsolt “Madár” Erdei, the WBO light heavyweight champion.

Born in the capital, Budapest, on the banks of the Danube River, Erdei showed a top pedigree as an amateur winning the European championship twice, the world championship and finally the middleweight bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, before hanging up his vest aged twenty-six and with an excellent record of 212-20. “Firebird” built up a record of 12-0 (8) against the usual suspects, with a quick knockdown against the Ukrainian hard-man Oleksandr Garashchenko (won UD4), the only minor glitch, en route to a shot at the vacant WBO Intercontinental light heavyweight title, which he picked up with a win over South African based Scot Jim Murray. Five more victories followed against “C” level opposition, including a stoppage of the ancient Paraguayan Juan Carlos Gimenez Ferreyra – who had held the South American title TWENTY years previously – before Erdei was given a shot at the full-on WBO champion (and more importantly, Dariusz Michalczewski conqueror) Julio Gonzalez.

The Californian based Mexican had shocked the 48-0 Pole, a stable-mate of Zsolt’s, with a victory in Germany three monthsearlier and was a favorite to defeat the relatively unknown Hungarian in his first defense. At 35-1, with his only defeat a credible points loss to a prime Roy Jones Jr., Gonzalez looked to take the fight to the Magyar, much as he had done with Michalczewski, but was handily out-pointed by the well-schooled Erdei, who used the ring and excellent boxing skills to take a 118-110 (twice) and 117-111 decision. This upset gave the Hungarians a new world champion, with the shocked loser not even asking for a rematch after his comprehensive defeat.

The likable thirty-one-year-old Erdei has since made three defenses of the WBO title, two against the very tough Argentinean Hugo Hernan Garay and a handy triumph over Alejandro Lakatus squeezed in-between. The first victory over Garay had a touch of deja vu for the Hungarian public, who remembered the “Ko-Ko” crumble, but their hero pulled out a majority win to become the first Hungarian to successfully defend a world title belt.

His opponent on the big Klaus-Peter Kohl bill in Hamburg on Saturday will be the French puncher Mehdi Sahnoune, who briefly held the WBA belt in 2003, taking it via seventh round knockout from compatriot Bruno Girard, before losing his next bout to the Italian Silvio Branco in the tenth. Branco then lost in his first defense to the excellent French fighter Fabrice Tiozzo, who recently sent Dariusz Michalczewski into retirement with an easy sixth round win at the same Color Line Arena where Erdei defends this week, perhaps adding some extra pressure. Sahnoune turned professional in late 1997, and compiled a 23-0 (20) record during his lead up to the Girard challenge and now maintains a 31-1 (27) log, which is an 85% stoppage rate and his aggressive style may well suit the champion’s counter-punching technique. Erdei has only stopped one opponent in his last six after being 16-0 (12) in his climb to the top.

Erdei starts a pretty healthy favorite over the twenty-nine-year-old, who has kept busy since his loss but against a dismal parody of boxers, including the 0-12 (at the time) Richard Pokossi. If Zsolt can come through this test, he has a chance of unification fights against the aforementioned Tiozzo or the winner of Clinton Woods and Julio Gonzalez, who fight for Woods’ IBF strap in September. With Antonio Tarver looking to bigger and better things, (read heavyweight challenge or Roy Jones rubber match) the rest of the division is wide open for someone to claim the undisputed championship. With this future in mind, I expect the champion to be too smart, quick and disciplined for the Marseillan and pull out a unanimous decision.

Jonny Townsend can be reached at taansend@yahoo.com