Marco Huck vs. Ola Afolabi on May 11th in Hannover, Germany

By Boxing News - 03/20/2013 - Comments

huck43By Allan Fox: WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck (35-2-1, 25 KO’s) will be facing Ola Afolabi (19-2-4, 9 KO’s) on May 11th at the Tui Arena, in Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany. This will be the third time these two fighters have fought. Huck, 28, beat the 33-year-old Afolabi by a 12 round unanimous decision four years ago in December 2009, but then the two fought to a controversial 12 round draw last year in May in a fight where Huck took a lot of punishment appeared to lose the fight.

It shows you how well Afolabi performed in that fight because to get a draw in Germany sometimes means you fought well to win by at least four rounds. I had Afolabi winning by an 8 rounds to 4 score after he swept the first six rounds – or at least he should have swept the first six rounds because he controlled the action.

Huck came roaring back in the second half of the fight and fought well in the last six rounds. I had Huck winning four of the last six rounds, but it wasn’t enough to get the win but was enough for him to escape with some respect because he was getting really handled by Afolabi in the first part of the fight.

I think that fight took a lot of out of Huck because he looked really poor in his last fight against Firat Arslan last November in a fight in which Huck won a controversial 12 round unanimous decision. Huck’s performance in that fight looked like a shadow of how he fought against Afolabi, and it’s unclear what happened to Huck.

Could it be that the wear and tear of his ring wars or catching up to him or is it strictly from the punishment he absorbed in his last Afolabi fight that did it to him. Whatever the case, this isn’t a good time for Huck to be facing Afolabi again right after two controversial fights that he appeared to lose.

Huck has incredible luck during his career for the most part with the exception of his knockout loss to Steve Cunningham and his 12 round majority decision loss to WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin. Huck has controversial decision wins over Vadim Tokarev, Denis Lebedev, Arslan and Afolabi. You can make a case that Huck should have an additional four losses on his resume to go with his two defeats.

I’d be surprised if Afolabi gets the decision in this fight no matter how good he looks. He better be looking for a knockout because I think that’s the only way he’s going to leave Germany with a win.



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