Huck likely to face Arslan next

By Boxing News - 06/09/2013 - Comments

huck5643By Eric Thomas: WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck (36-2-1, 25 KO’s) beat Ola Afolabi (19-3-4, 9 KO’s) last Saturday night by a 12 round majority decision in their third fight. Like their other two fights together, it was close from start to finish, but Huck ended up prevailing by the scores 117-111, 115-113, 114-114. With this win, Huck will likely face 42-year-old former WBA cruiserweight champion Firat Arslan (33-6-2, 21 KO’s) in a rematch for later this year. Huck beat Arslan by a controversial 12 round unanimous decision last November.

That fight was controversial because Arslan dominated Huck and out-landed him and out-worked him. Arslan forced Huck to fight on the inside where Huck is much less skilled and he gave him a real beating.

It’s difficult to imagine Huck being able to do better in the rematch because he’s not going to be able to keep Arslan from turning it into an inside battle because the 42-year-old cuts off the ring so well and he’s onto of you before you know it. The only way Huck can get through this fight without it being a punishing affair is if a referee is installed for the fight that prevents inside work. If a referee prevents Arslan from working on the inside by constantly breaking the action and separating the fighters then it’s going to be a problem for Arslan because he absolutely needs to be able to work on the inside to win the fight.

Huck looked to be in excellent physical shape for the Afolabi fight last Saturday night. However, Huck still faded in the last five rounds and that’s what ended up making it a much closer than it might have been.

Huck got away with a lot of fouling in the Afolabi fight in terms of rabbit punches and low blows. He’s going to have to be careful with those fouls because sooner or later there’s going to be a referee working one of his fights that actually deducts points for fouling and he might have a lot of opportunities to take away points from Huck with the way he tends to throw a lot of rabbit punches.



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