- Source: Zsolt Erdei
Zsolt Erdei (born 31 May 1974) is a Hungarian former professional boxer who competed from 2000 to 2014. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the WBO and lineal light-heavyweight titles from 2004 to 2009 (making eleven consecutive defences against ten different opponents), and the WBC cruiserweight title from 2009 to 2010. Erdei is the first boxer from Hungary to win world titles in two weight divisions. As an amateur, he won a bronze medal in the middleweight division at the 2000 Olympics. He also competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Amateur career
1997 World Champion in Budapest
1998 and 2000 European Champion
Representing Hungary, won the Middleweight bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney
Amateur Record: 212–20
1996 Olympic Results
Defeated Juan Pablo López (Mexico) RSC 3 (2:20)
Lost to Malik Beyleroğlu (Turkey) 8–9
2000 Olympic Results - Boxed as a Middleweight (75 kg)
Defeated Vladislav Vizilter (Kyrgyzstan) RSC-3
Defeated Alexander Zubrikhin (Ukraine) 14–9
Lost to Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov (Russia) 16–24
Professional career
Erdei turned professional in December 2000 and won the WBO Inter-Continental light heavyweight title in October 2002. On 17 January 2004 Erdei won the Lineal and WBO light heavyweight titles from Julio César González by unanimous decision, and successfully defended the titles eleven times.
On 13 November 2009 he relinquished his WBO light heavyweight title and moved up to cruiserweight. Erdei defeated Giacobbe Fragomeni on 21 November 2009 for the WBC cruiserweight title. Most of Erdei's matches during his professional career were promoted by Universum boxing.
After announcing his retirement in January 2010 and thus relinquishing his claim as Lineal light heavyweight champion, Erdei decided to have more matches in 2011 in the US and fought Samson Onyango and Byron Mitchell as his first opponents there. The Mitchell fight which was set up by Lou DiBella ended with Erdei knocking Mitchell out in the 6th round (TKO).
Erdei finally returned on 30 March 2013, losing a 10-round split decision to Denis Grachev.
Professional boxing record
See also
Lineal championship
List of world light-heavyweight boxing champions
List of world cruiserweight boxing champions
References
External links
Boxing record for Zsolt Erdei from BoxRec (registration required)
Zsolt Erdei profile at Cyber Boxing Zone
Zsolt Erdei at Olympedia (archive)