ZSOLT ERDEI W12 (maj.) GIACOBBE FRAGOMENI

Known primarily as a smart mover with an excellent left jab, Hungary’s Zsolt Erdei showed he can dig down and grit out a win in a tough, gruelling, slog of a fight when he outscored Giacobbe Fragomeni to capture the WBC cruiserweight title on Saturday.

This surprisingly turned out to be one of the best fights of the year, tense and exciting, with some rousing exchanges of punches.

Erdei, weighing barely over the light-heavy limit and conceding 17 pounds to the strong, tank-like champion, boxed beautifully in the first four rounds, scoring with three and four jabs at a time and rattling off the combinations.

Gradually, though, Fragomeni closed in on him, digging to the body, knocking Erdei’s head sideways with his hooks and right hands on top.

Unable to keep up a moving, jabbing style against the sheer weight of Fragomeni’s onslaught, Erdei met fire with fire, blazing right back at the bigger man and bouncing punches off of the Italian fighter’s shaved dome. It reminded me of a plucky schoolboy taking on a bigger, older youth and fighting him to a standstill.

I really thought that Fragomeni was starting to break down Erdei in the middle rounds. Erdei was looking very tired in the seventh. Fragomeni looked too big, too strong. Then Erdei rallied, showing tremendous heart as he blasted punches at Fragomeni in the eighth, ninth and 10th rounds. Just when it looked as if the Hungarian fighter was spent, when it seemed certain that Fragomeni would finally grind him down, so Erdei would launch yet another counter attack.

By the 11th Fragomeni was slowing, but Erdei looked much the wearier man, and now it was down to guts and will as they slammed away at each other, neither wanting to give ground.

Erdei looked ready to collapse from exhaustion in the last round but he somehow stayed up and kept punching. The final bell must have sounded like a symphony to Erdei, but he made it, and two of the judges saw the fight his way with scores of 115-113 while the third judge had it 114-114. I, too, had it 114-114 but I swayed Fragomeni’s way in the 11th, which, I thought, could just as easily have been Erdei’s round.

At the finish, Erdei had the look of a fighter who felt he had won, a downcast Fragomeni had the air of a fighter who sensed he hadn’t done quite enough — and Erdei’s wife wept tears of joy (and perhaps relief) even before the decision was announced.

Erdei’s gamble in giving up his light-heavy title to fight for a belt at 200 pounds paid off, but Fragomeni’s advantages in size and strength almost proved too much for the Hungarian boxer. My suspicion is that this will be a one-off venture into the heavier weight class for Erdei. He got away with it this time — next time he might not.