Zoltan Petranyi Fights for UBO World Heavyweight Title at 52, Boxer on Edge of Forever
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Zoltan Petranyi of Hungary is 52 years old. Jack Johnson, Rocky Marciano or Muhammad Ali most certainly he is not. Petranyi likes fighting, and he fits into the category of boxers who are clearly in different tiers and ranges of ability. Petranyi is sort of a Tommy Morrison style fighter of the ‘C’ level European heavyweights over in Europe. Petranyi is a known name, an available opponent for the best, but more capable as a lower level ‘C’ level heavyweight club fighter.
Enthusiasm means a lot though. Petranyi turned pro 22 years ago, winning a six round decision in April 1996 over Istvan Garancsy, and stopping Marek Wybak in the second round less than a month later. Petranyi’s career record is 56 wins and 23 losses, with 19 knockouts, being stopped 16 times. He began at age 29, and is probably among the oldest boxers still active.
There are a number of second and third tier boxing titles available on the world and regional level. Petranyi, a former Hungarian and UBO European heavyweight champion, is coming off a second knockout win over Norbert Frank this past June. Precisely how this translated to a vacant Universal Boxing Organization World Heavyweight title opportunity against 14-0-1 32-year-old Kazakhstan fighter Alexander Frank on September 8, 2018, in Europe, is a mystery. However, there are various fighters of various abilities out there, and Petranyi did hold the UBO European title from 2011 to 2014, and has also previously fought for the obscure WBF World Heavyweight title.
Petranyi versus Frank needs to be taken on face value. There are various fighters out there of different abilities, strengths and levels of motivation. Petranyi did not last one round against world-class heavyweights Shannon Briggs (a former WBO world heavyweight champion) and Richel Hersisia (20-0 at the time). Petranyi wins major points in his home country of Hungary for one important distinction: his enthusiasm, in the least, gives boxing a good name. A Hungarian heavyweight title rematch of his 2014 loss to Zoltan Csala which cost him his Hungarian Heavyweight title, or a match against interim Hungarian heavyweight champion Ferenc Zsalek, both ‘C’ level Hungarian heavyweight club fighters of similar range of ability to Petranyi (Zsalek is 21-70, while the 11-18 Csala has lost eight straight) would be considered fairly even matchups for Petranyi in the future. Given his age and level of ability, and the limited significance of the Hungarian by making it readily available for anyone who still wants to fight for it, Petranyi can still fight in Hungary, depending on who he fights. His age makes him unlikely to beat Alexander Frank, though.
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