It was a moment of great delight and relief for Zsolt Erdei. With a dramatic knockout victory in round twelve the exhausted Hungarian defended his World Boxing Organization light heavyweight title at Brandberge Arena in Halle, Gemany against his determined French challenger Mehdi Sahnoune.

In front of 3.000 competent spectators at this stronghold of amateur boxing in Germany former amateur world champion Erdei had to overcome a severe mid fight crisis between rounds five and nine before he was able to decide the fight in the final round. Erdei caught his second wind from rounds ten through twelve and eventually regained the upper hand against his aggressive opponent who kept on moving forward. Erdei finally moved Sahnoune into the blue corner where he pummeled his challenger with a dozen unanswered punches until referee Joe Cortez stopped the fight at 2:17 of the final round.

"It was a great and spectacular fight and I'm glad that I met Sahnoune who is such a fair play boxer", Erdei said after his victory. "Now I know that I'm not only a good boxer but also a good fighter. There was a point where I wasn't sure that I would reach the final bell. I'm proud of my performance because I fought spectacular, which is something I always wanted."

The dramatic victory in his fourth world title defense did not only take a load off the mind of the 31-year-old Universum fighter. In fact the entire team was relieved after four of Erdei’s stable mates had been been defeated this year in world title fights - Dariusz Michalczewski, Mario Veit, Luan Krasniqi and Thomas Ulrich.

Erdei who scored his first knockout in a world title fight remains undefeated as a professional with a record of 23-0 with 14 knockouts. Sahnoune dropped to 31-2 with 27 knockouts.

"I believed in my victory until the very end", Sahnoune said. "But unfortunately it just wasn't enough."

It was the second run on a fight between Erdei and Sahnoune. Erdei canceled his title defense scheduled for July 2nd at Hamburg’s Color Line Arena because of a gastroenteric influenza at the morning before of the event.

The charge of coach Fritz Sdunek scored a big victory in the city Halle for the second time after he captured the Chemie Pokal of the amateurs in 1998.