Huck Stops Rusal

By Erik Schmidt: European cruiserweight champion Marco Huck (25-1, 20 KOs) had an easy time defeating Vitaly Rusal (23-1, 16 KOs) by a 5th round stoppage tonight at the Jako Arena, in Bamberg, Germany. Huck, 24, ranked #4 in the World Boxing Council, #4 in the IBF, #6 in the WBA and WBO, hurt Rusal with a flurry of shots late in the 5th, causing a standing eight count for Rusal.

A short while later, Huck against rushed forward and threw a storm of punches, connecting to the head of the nearly defenseless Rusal who was standing and trying to cover up on the ropes. The referee then stepped in and halted the bout.

Huck, who is known for his aggressive attacks, played it cool is the early going, as he let Rusal do the attacking in the first two rounds. Rusal, a Ukrainian with good combinations but little power, charged forward and landed a lot of punches in the first two rounds as Huck was content to mostly cover up and wait Rusal out. Huck came on late in the 1st round and tagged Rusal with some huge right hands to the head.

It was classic Huck, rushing forward without much technique and just winging big shots with both hands. Huck’s power looked much better than it was in the past in fights against Steve Cunningham and Vadim Tokarev. Indeed, the 24-year-old Huck looks as if he’s developed much more strength since being defeated by Cunningham in a 12th round TKO two years ago in 2007. Huck’s technique is as terrible as ever, but his power more than makes up for it.

Rusal started off well in the 2nd round, hitting Huck with some left-right combinations. However, Huck went on the attack, throwing powerful flurries at Rusal with most of them missing badly. The punches that connected, though, did damage and had the effect of reducing Rusal’s punch output to almost zero. Huck landed one tremendous right hand late in the round.

Huck was now fighting in his usual wild man attacking style, charging forward and flailing with his punches in a kind of out of control manner. Huck missed a lot of shots, but the punches that he was connecting with were doing damage.

In between his flurries, Huck would cover up like a sparring partner and allow Rusal free shots. It looked bad, as if Huck hadn’t learned anything from his previous fights in which he made the same mistake over and over again.

In the 3rd round, Rusal fought well, putting together some nice combinations to the head and body of Huck. It was made easier for Rusal in that Huck was covering up and letting Rusal punch away at him. Periodically, Huck would stop covering up and would charge forward swinging wild shots and looking more than a little amateurish in the process.

Near the end of the round, Huck went after Rusal and tagged him with a flurry of big shots. Rusal took them okay, but he obviously wasn’t going to be able to take punishment like that for long without going down.

In the 4th round, Huck landed some big right hands, as he went after Rusal with occasional all out attacks. However, like in the previous round, Rusal fought well and was able to do the more significant work with his combinations and more professional fighting style.

During the round, Huck was warned by the referee for holding onto Rusal with his left hand and nailing him with a big right uppercut. Although the warning was given, the punch – a huge one – was still landed by Huck. Near the end of the round, Huck caught Rusal on the ropes and nailed him with two big right hands to the head.

Unfortunately, Rusal didn’t have the power needed to do damage to Huck, who was content to mostly just cover up and wait for his turn to punch.

Huck put an end to the fight in the 5th, hurting Rusal on two separate occasions late in the round with aggressive charges. On the first occasion, Huck, standing square in front of Rusal, pinned him against the ropes and nailed him with a blizzard of punches that hurt Rusal, causing his nose to bleed. The referee stepped in and gave Rusal a standing eight count.

However, after the action resumed Huck immediately landed a huge right hand that sent Rusal flying backwards into the ropes. Huck then added a final left-right combination, at which point the referee stepped in and stopped the bout.

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