By Erik Schmidt: World Boxing Organization light heavyweight champion Zsolt Erdei (30-0, 17 KOs) won a 12-round unanimous decision over challenger Yuri Barashian (25-5, 17 KOs) in a non-title defense at the Bordelandhalle, Magdeburg, in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. The final judges’ scores were 116-111, 117-110 and 116-111. Erdei, in what was perhaps the toughest opponent to date for him, took a lot of punishment from the hard-hitting Barashian despite getting the win.
There were no knockdowns in the bout and neither fighter were hurt. However, Barashian deducted a point for low blow in 9th round after having been warned on two earlier occasions to keep his punches up. Erdei, from Hungary and now living and fighting out of Germany, dominated the first seven rounds of the fight with his jab and fast combinations.
In the last five rounds of the bout, the heavy-handed southpaw Barashian landed frequently with powerful left hooks and short combinations, getting the better of a now tired-looking Erdei. For his part, Erdei continued to land his jab with great regularity but they were no match for the powerful left hands that Barashian was bombarding him with.
More and more, Erdei’s face began to swell and redden, making him look like a beaten fighter. At the same time, Barashian, 29, was totally unmarked on his face and was only sweating a lot. However, by that time, Erdei had such a big lead that Barashian needed a knockout to win the fight and with Erdei fighting on the outside, it wasn’t about to happen.
Barashian, though, did what few other fighters have done in the previous 10 title challenges against Erdei, backing him repeatedly, wearing him down and punishing him badly. Erdei, who usually escapes his fights without getting hit too often due to his preference of fighting behind his jab on the outside, was continuously backed up and forced to trade shots with the bigger, younger and much more powerful Barashian. In the end, Erdei got the win but he get hit with a massive amount of power shots and ended up having his facial features rearranged in the process.
Erdei used his excellent jab to control the 1st round, hitting Barashian with fast jabs and short combinations. Erdei was almost unhittable in the round, too fast and on his toes to prevent the slower Barashian from landing anything significant.
Erdei continued throwing quick jabs and fast combinations in the second round, beating the slower Barashian to the punch and making him miss. In the last minute of the round, Erdei nailed Barashian with a really hard jab, which snapped the Ukrainian fighter’s head as if he had been hit with a power shot.
In the last 20 seconds lf the round, Erdei charged forward and threw a flurry of punches, some landing, some not. This would be something that Erdei would continue to do for the remainder of the bout, trying to steal the round by throwing flurries in the last seconds of the round.
In most cases, he hardly needed to because he was clearly winning most of the rounds and only succeeded in leaving himself open for huge counter shots from Barashian when Erdei would foolishly throw these desperate, judge-pleasing flurries.
Barashian began throwing jabs of his own in the third round, and doing a decent job of almost matching Erdei jab for jab. Though he didn’t have quite as good a jab as Erdei, who lives and dies by his jab, Barashian had a respectable jab and snapped Erdei’s head back often in the round.
Near the end of the round, Barashian caught up to Erdei for the first time and nailed him with a big body shot and a left to the head. Erdei, who’s not used to being hit in his fights, looked surprised as if Barashian had broken the script for the fight.
In the 4th round, Barashian began stalking Erdei around the ring, trying to load up with big shots but mostly missing when he’d try to land big. He was still content to throw jabs as Erdei was still moving too much and throwing too many jabs for Barashian to land his power shots.
Erdei continued his domination of Barashian in the 5th, hitting him now with right hands as well as jabs. Later on in the round, Barashian landed a beautiful left hand that strayed low, prompting for referee Roberto Ramirez to give Barashian the first of his warnings for low blows.
In the 6th round, Barashian began to find his way inside punching range more and more, blasting Erdei with big left hooks, straight lefts and right hooks to the head and body. Erdei continued to try and fend him off with jabs, but they were no match for Barashian’s power shots.
Barashian was now looking as if he was warming up, whereas Erdei was starting to look tired and slightly beaten down in the face. Erdei’s face looked even worse by the end of the 7th, as he was forced to trade power shots with Barashian a lot in the round. Erdei did a respectable job in the round but he was hit with some monstrous shots and his punches, no matter how hard he tried, just didn’t have the power that Barashian had.
Part of that was perhaps due to Barashian coming into the fight at a heavier weight than Erdei but even if they had come in at the exact same weight, Erdei just doesn’t have much in the way of power and has to rely on his jab to win his bouts.
In the 8th round, Barashian once again landed a left hand low and was given another warning by the referee. Barashian was now finding it easy to land shots as Erdei looked too tired to escape from him and was now a mostly stationary fighter.
Without the ability to move, Erdei was the equivalent of a butterfly without wings and no match for Barashian in a one on one fight. Erdei was given a gift in the 9th round after the referee deducted a point from Barashian for landing a left hand low. However, it was another round for Barashian, who hit Erdei with a lot of power shots in the round.
Near the end of the round, there was a clash of heads which caused a cut to open just above Erdei’s left eyebrow. In rounds 10 through 12, Barashian controlled the action, hitting a tired and old looking Erdei repeatedly with hard power shots. Erdei landed a lot of punches of his own but neither as frequent nor as powerful as Barashian.
In the end, I had Erdei winning by a narrow margin based on his earlier work in the first half of the fight. As good as he looked then, he nearly totally collapsed in the last six rounds and looked bad as he was battered around the ring by Barashian.
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