WBC cruiserweight champion Zsolt Erdei: “It’s difficult to find the right words. I can say that. Everything I experienced before the fight was really the limit. I knew that I cound do it, but I didn’t know it would be sooo hard. After the fourth round, I was out of breath. I tortured myself. Thanks to Fritz, and also to my doctors that they helped me endure this difficult situation with my short-term mild flu. Also hats off to Mr. Fragomeni. He showed his fighting heart. I realize, as the judges did, that I narrowly won the fight, except for the one that saw it as a draw. This was a really fair fight. After the fight he told me that I am the true champion even before the ring announcer lifted my arm. For me this was a correct recognition. Thanks for the fight, thank you for the opportunity.

“I’m thinking about the future, but for now I’ll pause and celebrate Christmas. But I think I have enough strength left and in the future we’ll see what we can do.

“As a child I collected pictures and Muhammad Ali was in some. Now, his image is emblazoned on my WBC belt. That makes me very happy. Ali is my role model, but somehow I can’t feel it yet. It’s all too unrealistic. I can’t understand it! ”

Former champion Giacobbe Fragomeni: “I have great respect for Zsolt. It was a great fight. It was my fault for starting so slowly in the early rounds. I was better at the end, it was then a very close battle. Now I want a rematch!”

Trainer Fritz Sdunek: “I’ve aged a few years and now have more white hair. When I heard Zsolt coughing today, I thought ‘what good is it?” How he coped with the flu was insane. Thanks to the whole team who supported him so he could endure this. Even the thought of his family drove him forward. We knew we were taking a risk. I looked at Fragomeni, I knew he’s wasn’t bigger and we could do it.”

Klaus-Peter Kohl: “Maybe now we’ll go to heavyweight, won’t we Zsolt?

Zsolt Erdei: Bring on Nikolai Valuev!“