By Cliff Rold

Loyal readers can depend on this scribe never demanding that quality fighters from abroad need to travel to the United States to make their mark.  There have been plenty of fighters who proved in-ring greatness without a passport.  That most U.S. fans missed out on the prime years of a Yuri Arbachakov or even Joe Calzaghe is more a shame for the fans than the fighters.

Case in point is a card this Saturday at the Freiberger Arena in Dresden, Sachsen, Germany featuring two fighters who look like they have the goods to compete with the world’s best in their weight classes.  Both are skilled, former Olympians who step closer each day to middle age and farther from the days when their gloves can do the talking.  Light Heavyweight Zsolt Erdei (28-0, 17 KO, WBO titlist) of Hungary and Jr. Middleweight Sergiy Dzinziruk (34-0, 22 KO, WBO titlist) of the Ukraine, both based in Germany, are solid professional fighters.

Very soon, they’ll be former fighters whose real worth beyond professionalism will be as much a mystery to the men themselves as it is to the sport itself.

Erdei, of course, is the sometimes noted lineal champion at 175 lbs., a distinction his ‘reign’ has made less valuable than it was when he got to it.  It’s not that he’s faced all slugs; Hugo Garay and Thomas Ullrich were both solid challenges.  His last three opponents (Danny Santiago, George Blades and Tito Mendoza) were not.  This weekend he prepares to face American DeAndrey Abron whose selection as an opponent doesn’t bode well.

After a week that showcased the best of the Light Heavyweight division, it’s a shame that the 33-year old Erdei remains so anonymous.  He’s a fundamentally sound boxer with a good jab and decent pop.  Could he hang with Glen Johnson, Antonio Tarver, Chad Dawson or even Joe Calzaghe?

Dzinziruk is an even tougher pill to swallow for those who have seen him in action.  The 32-year old captured his title belt in 2005 against a proven solid, Daniel Santos.  It was a tense, competitive affair narrowly won by the Ukrainian on the strength of an eighth-round knockdown.  It was the sort of win that could have propelled him forward in a division that even then was wide-open.

It is even more so today.  His opponent this weekend, Lukas Konecny (36-2, 18 KO), has a fancy record but one of those losses came to the same Michelle Piccirillo who was run out of the ring by Americans Vernon Forrest and Cory Spinks (both times no matter what the scores read the first time).  A 6’0 southpaw, Dzinziruk has the pedigree, hand speed, and style to compete with anyone at 154 lbs.  Would he defeat fellow alphabelt titlists Forrest, Verno Phillips, or Joachim Alcine?

Dzinziruk’s answers are the same as those that can be derived from the questions asked of Erdei.

No one knows…including them.

This is not to ascribe blame.  Fighters that can make money in the German market, who can put food on the table and keep roofs over their families heads, can’t be faulted for continuing to do so.  In general, overseas managers are often reluctant, and wise, to protect their home-based investments and there isn’t often a clamor abroad to see the Erdei’s and Dzinziruk’s anyways.

Occasionally though, there are situations where the shame of it all leaps out.  Both of these men have proven what they can where they are.  Like anyone who works hard enough to be at their best for tasks beneath their talent, talent their undefeated records attest to, the inner voice has to get cranky.  It would be only human for Erdei, for Dzinziruk, to wonder where they really belong.

What their best really is.

Their twenties are already behind them and the best of their 30s won’t last forever. 

If Erdei and Dzinziruk play out their careers without facing the questions paychecks can’t answer, then wondering about what might have been could very well fell like it lasts that long once they hang them up.

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com