Boxing In Germany: Erdei, Inkin Put WBO Belts At Risk January 10

Two WBO titlists will put their belts at risk on January 10 in Magdeburg, Germany as newly minted Dennis Inkin and longtime champ Zsolt Erdei see action on the bill.

Light heavy kingpin Erdei, 29-0 (17), has held the WBO crown for almost five years now and has successfully navigated his way through ten title defenses over that span of time.

The 34 year old “Firebird” has had a rocky reign, posting a majority decision and split decision over current WBA titlist Hugo Hernan Garay in two bouts, a split decision against Tito Mendoza and was veering very close to a loss before stopping ex-WBA titlist Mehdi Sahnoune in the final round of their contest.

Erdei has also made a lot of defenses against less that top flight competition and on January 10 will continue that tradition against Ukraine based Armenian Yuri Barashian, 25-4 (17).

29 year old southpaw Barashian is coming off a loss for the vacant WBA title challenge to cagey Argentine Garay in which he was soundly outboxed and widely outpointed.

Prior to that, Barashian won the European title by knocking out Germany’s Thomas Ulrich but once past that victory, the resume of wins becomes very thin.

While he likely could not share the ring with other top light heavies such as Joe Calzaghe and Chad Dawson, Erdei does have very good boxing skills and should turn back Barashian on points.

The other WBO titlist on the bill, super middle Dennis Inkin, 34-0 (24), waited a long time to challenge Calzaghe when the Welsh Wizard held the 168 pound belt but that bout never materialized as Calzaghe went to light heavyweight instead.

Inkin was to have challenged England’s Carl Froch but that bout too never happened, with Froch going off to outslug Canada’s Jean Pascal in a thriller for the vacant WBC belt and Inkin outpointed Colombian hard man and IBO titlist Fulgencio Zuniga for the vacant WBO belt in September.

For his first title defense, Inkin will face the challenge of undefeated Karoly Balzsay, 19-0 (14), a Hungarian southpaw who holds the WBO Intercontinental strap.

Balzsay has succeeded against everyone put in front of him but the 29 year old will be stepping up to a different level of boxing ability when he meets Inkin, who should be able to negate Balzsay’s offense to post a points verdict and keep the title.

If Inkin does do that, his title reign could be one of unifications against the likes of Froch, Lucian Bute or the top man in the division, dangerous Dane Mikkel Kessler but we also could see a Erdei-like career full of lesser opponents designed to keep the title safely within his grasp.