Erdei Decisions Mendoza

World Boxing Organization light heavyweight champion Zsolt Erdei defeated challenger Tito Mendoza by split decision on Saturday night in Dresdan, Germany. The final judges’ scores were 116-112, 116-112 for Erdie and for 117-111 for Mendoza, giving the 33 year-old Erdei the decision. Erdei wasn’t expecting a hard bout from Mendoza, as he was supposed to have had an easy time over the Panamanian.

However, Mendoza walked through Erdei’s jabs, tagging him with powerful right hands and uppercuts, and making the fight close. The more telling punches of the fight were thrown by Mendoza, who after a slow start in the first four rounds, started coming on in the 2nd half of the fight with his power shots. Erdei continued, almost exclusively throwing jabs, and piling on points, but the he had little to go with them. Erdei, not sued to being pressured, had problems with his stamina as he appeared to wilt under Mendoza’s constant pressure, losing the last four rounds on my scorecard.