Underrated career. Victories over Garay x2 (close but clear both times, years before he dealt Brähmer his only defeat in the last decade) and González (fresh off his cherry-popping upset of aging but still dominant - and then Marciano-chasing at 48-0 - Tiger Michalczewski) in their primes - along with evergreen Italian workhorse and serial challenger Fragomeni in a FOTY candidate that never gets any due remembrance - form a pretty respectable core around which he padded up some yeoman's work cleaning out what counted for the B+ tier of contending outliers in the Venn diagram overlap intersection of a couple of so-so eras front-loaded with big name talent but not all that deep. He lost just once, in the Monte Carlo tourney (in which many insiders and boxing scholars considered him the odds-on fave to mop up the field...and far more clearly & confidently so than most tipped Kessler, ultimately proving to be erroneous in hindsight, to be a sure thing over the rest in the World Boxing Classic) to Denis Grachev and that ranks among the worst overlooked robberies of the last few years. He was at times mooted to square off with the likes of Brähmer, Shumenov, Campillo, Pascal and Chilemba. All were canceled, mostly due to injury, but IMO he could well have run that gauntlet 5-0 (or just as easily 0-5, as I envision all of them as close momentum-swapping battles, as well as fan-pleasing styles match-ups aesthetically) to significantly enhance what stands as somewhat underwhelming a legacy considering what an excellent boxer he could be on his best nights. He is highly unlikely to ever compete again, having returned to action exactly one year after the undeserved loss to Grachev to bid farewell to his fans at home in Hungary with an easy shutout UD10 over Shalva Jomardashvili to exit on a happier note. Still, a clash with Brähmer (who remains active but is getting on in age himself, with his sharpness diminishing) still holds appeal to me, if nobody else outside a few diehard "early millennium Euro scene at light heavyweight" scholars. It would probably sell fairly well even now in Germany, if Erdei at 42 could be lured from retirement...where he is happily cranking out illustrated children's books featuring the inspirational adventures of his mascot, the mythical firebird. (no kidding!) ...or, he could be dragged into a would-be mismatch by Adonis Stevenson in a scramble to face a "name" opponent that isn't Ward or Kovalev. I kind of hope that does happen because I could see that backfiring. :yep Erdei may be old but Stevenson is only 4 years his junior and could end up getting a boxing lesson from someone that doesn't fear his punch and has plenty of ring savvy to figure out his movement.
I spoke with Erdei and his trainer (RIP) Sdunek at the press conference for Erdei's fight in Dresden (Mendoza was later revealed as opponent). He's a really nice guy and it was a pleasure to get to know him and Sdunek personally. He missed some good fight or good opportunities. His promoter planned a unification with Tiozzo ... but Tiozzo wasn't able to make the 175-limit and retired. His promoter had options on Danny Green (after his fight with Stipe Drews) and planned a unification ... but Green retirered instead and came back later. There was a fight with Roy Jones jr in talks (Jones was #1 in WBO ratings, if i remember correctly) .... but suddenly Don King offered Jones the payday against Trinidad and that fight fell thru. Erdei hoped for a fight against Brähmer ... but his promoter relagated him into the cruiserweight and informed the WBO that Erdei would give up his LHW title ... something Erdei never wanted. I hoped that Erdei would find some good fights in the USA after he left the bankrupt promoter "Universum". It was really sad, that he wasn't able to get in the ring with Shumenov, Chilemba etc and that he got rusty and robbed. Erdei deserved a better career ending after he hoped for bigger fight for several years.
