By Jim Dower: Former WBO light heavyweight and WBC cruiserweight champion Zsolt Erdei (33-0, 18 KO’s) stopped former WBA super middleweight champion Byron Mitchell (28-8-1, 21 KO’s) in the 6th round on Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Erdei, 37, knocked Mitchell down twice in the 6th round with right hands. After the 2nd knockdown, referee Eddie Cotton stopped the bout at 1:58 of the 6th.

Erdei, ranked #3 WBA, #4 WBC, #5 IBF, #7 WBO, controlled most of the fight with his combinations. It appeared that Erdei hurt his right hand in the 4th round, as he shook the hand after landing a right hand. He spent most of the remaining two rounds using his left hand exclusively. Throwing a lot of double and triple left hooks, Erdei was able to dominate Mitchell in the last two rounds. Erdei’s excellent jab was also a big factor for him in keeping Mitchell unable to land anything. Although Erdei’s hand speed has slowed dramatically from his best years between 2002 and 2008, it didn’t matter because Mitchell was out of his league in this fight.

This was the third straight loss for the 37-year-old Mitchell and his 7th defeat in his last 10 bouts. It’s sad how far Mitchell has slipped since his prime of his career from 1999 to 2002.

Erdei, this was only the second fight for him in the United States, and his bout didn’t even make it onto television on HBO. Perhaps next time Erdei will make it on TV. Hopefully, he’ll take on a much better fighter than Mitchell the next time around.

With this win, there is a chance that Erdei could be facing WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly next. That fight would be an interesting match-up of two unbeaten fighters going at it.