This is the sort of match, should it ever happen, and should I ever be a coach, where I'd gather all the kids in the gym around the old 14" Panasonic tube w/ VCR attached via coaxial and say "Alright, everybody - today, forget your modern training hullabaloo and get ready for some intense plyometrics for your most important muscle...YER BRAIN! :deal Grab a seat and take nose. Lefties, pay attention to what Sloth from the Goonies is doing. Righties, mind every nuance in the game of Mac from Mac & Me..." I could sell tapes of it online (yeah, that will still be a thing...in economically backward but boxing forward countries...like Yemen) and write if off for tax purposes, because this **** will be 100% educational. Or, as I'll be sure to market it to my Yemeni brethren/rubes, edu-tainment-al.
No, no, no. Brahmer was WBO Interm Champ while Erdei was WBO Champion and Universum forced Erdei to move up. Im sure they didn't want two of their guys fighting and one being eliminated by their own BUT im sure they thought Erdei was more likely to win and Brahmer is an ethnic German who was easier to sell to the public. Erdei was 178lbs in the ring against Fragomeni ffs he doesn't even cut weight to make LHW. Zsolt was screwed by Universum and he tried leaving them right after that but got tied up in court with their shady contracts just like Golovkin and Dzinziruk among others.
Nah, this was before that. Brähmer wasn't champ yet during mid-2009 when talks were supposed to have begun. It was before he defended the Euro belt against Brancalion. Erdei was supposed to make his 12th defense in September and everyone was taken aback that it was going to be two Universum guys head to head, but that was the deal. Then it quietly dissipated and they went their separate ways, Erdei chasing Fragomeni and Brähmer slipping in behind him to scoop up his belt. I'm still a bit hazy on how that succession happened, considering for the entire first half of the year Brähmer was #10 and then suddenly in August he gets nudged up to #5 to compete for the interim title with #3 Kuziemski. :huh Anyway, you may well be right that despite the rumors of Universum pairing them up it seemed in their best interests to protect the German with Erdei paying the price and getting squeezed out of the division. :conf That sounds like par for the course. Both are probably heaving a sigh of relief not being with UBP anymore. (though Brähmer sort of hopped out of the frying pan and into the fire...)
Brahmer won the WBO interm belt against Kuziemski in Aug 2009 and Erdei fought Frag 3 months later. Im not sure what you're referring to in the yellow. There were talks for Erdei-Brahmer prior to the Brancalion and again in Sep 2009 right before Erdei moved up? That timeline would seem to fit my claim.
Yeah, I wasn't disputing your claim, just the part about Brähmer already being interim champ when talks first started. Talks were in May '09 looking ahead to a potential September '09 clash, assuming Brähmer got past Brancalion in his final EBU defense. From there it probably did play out like you said, knowing Universum. Instead of Erdei vs. Brähmer in September (as was rumored back in May/June) we got Brähmer vs. Kuziemski in August for Erdei's old belt and Erdei vs. Fragomeni in November. It sucks, mainly for Zsolt. Adding the solid Brähmer would have greatly strengthened his resume and been more creditable than beating Fragomeni (even though it counted for a 2nd weight division title) and he could have stayed active with some respectable longevity in a reign carrying on untl...well, no reason not to believe now. There never would've been a Cleverly era.
The worst thing was that Universum told Erdei that he had to vacate to fight for the CW title. Later Erdei found out that he didn't have to vacate at all. He was pretty disappointed to say the least. Erdei UD if he fought within the previous 9 months before Brähmer.
Zsolt looked to still have it vs Grachev. Closer fight than some on here might want to admit, but sadly, Erdei didnt get the benefit of the doubt b/c if he had, we might not have gotten that Rodriguez Ward travesty. Judges take note......see what your inability to score a rd does....how it warps the time space continuum like that. on an aside.....I think I called it for Denis like 115-114.
Wouldn't call it a robbery but the Grachev fight was a very close defeat for Erdei. He boxed very well that night. I think Erdei would get robbed against Braehmer though. For me Erdei is a much better all-round boxer but Braehmer is exceptionally tough and I doubt he'd get stopped. Braehmer wins a controversial SD. It's a fight I'd love to see.
Erdei boxed circles around Grachev. It wasn't quite as easy and masterful as Brähmer spinning Oliveira like a weather vane all night tagging him at will behind the right jab, but it was still pretty easy and pretty masterful stuff from the old Hungarian. Even the dissenting judge scoring it 96-94 Erdei gave too much credit to Grachev for ineffective aggression, IMO. That should have been a comfortable UD win, not a SD loss.
Wow. Watched the Grachev fight last night and had it 97-93 Erdei. He still has some great speed, he looked good early, Grachev won the close later rounds.
:good They must have been hoping for a more exciting finals match-up (on paper Rodriguez vs. Grachev should have been a war...) or thinking it was better to cultivate a 31-year-old pressure fighter just recently wetting his toes with top opposition rather than a 39-year-old pure boxer soon to exit the pool. That had to have been corruption - I mean, it was in Monte Carlo. Those are three highly experienced judges. There is no way they saw Grachev outbox Erdei. No way.
Zsolt Erdei begins his rebuilding process against Elvir Muriqi next month. :think Neither is WBA top 15 per the latest rankings published, but they require some updating. (it was just last week, but much has taken place...) Rankings as of December 12th: 1 MARCUS OLIVEIRA OC USA 2 JUERGEN BRAEHMER GER 3 ELEIDER ALVAREZ NABA COL 4 NADJIB MOHAMMEDI WBA CON FRA 5 EMMANUEL DANSO WBA PANAF GHA 6 CEDRIC AGNEW USA 7 THOMAS OOSTHUIZEN RSA 8 OLEKSANDR CHEWRVIAK UKR 9 RYAN COYNE USA 10 SEAN MONAGHAN USA 11 DMITRIY SUKHOTSKY WBA I/C RUS 12 KONNI KONRAD WBA INT SRB 13 ERIK SKOGLUND SWE 14 TAMAS KOVACS SVK 15 ILSHAT KHUSNULGATIN RUS As of January 31st, the following will all be coming off recent losses and should drop by varying amounts to create space for Erdei to wriggle in with a W over the unrated but possibly on-the-bubble Muriqi: #1 Oliveira (last weekend to Brähmer himself, so he probably won't fall too far...) #3 Alvarez or #7 Oosthuizen (they meet on January 18th) #8 Cherviak (a week before these rankings came out, to #4 Mohammedi - must have been an oversight...) #9 Coyne (last weekend to unranked Lionell Thompson) #14 Kovacs (last weekend to unranked Beibut Shumenov) ...so this one isn't completely out of reach just yet. There is a chance Erdei could ascent the rankings and challenge Brähmer while he still holds the belt and before Erdei himself retires.
It's still good! Neither is shot and both are still competing at world caliber. In fact, it may be even preferable now to 7 years ago since their different trajectories (Brähmer improving and growing more consistent so that his discipline has caught up to his innate talent, while Erdei has steadily declined but still remained formidable) makes it closer now than it would've been. Most agree it would've been a wide easy UD for Erdei then. It would've been similar to Mayweather vs. Alvarez, an established older great taking a very good up & comer to school. Now it's more like a prospective Mayweather vs. Alvarez rematch at the end of the Showtime contract or afterward...much juicier and more difficult to call.