(Photo credit: Team Sauerland) By Scott Gilfoid: WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck (37-2-1, 26 KOs) made weight on Friday for his title defense against fringe contender #12 WBO Mirko Larghetti (21-0, 13 KOs) on Saturday night at the Gerry Weber Stadium, Halle, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Huck, 29, weighed in at 200 pounds and looked good as always. His opponent Larghetti weighed in at 195.3 pounds.
This fight is pretty much just a simple title defense for Huck, because the 31-year-old Larghetti is clearly not at the same talent level or even close to the same talent level as him. But the fight does have meaning for Huck, because a victory over Larghetti will be Huck’s 13th title defense of his WBO strap, which would tie him with former WBO cruiserweight champion Johnny Nelson for the most title defenses for a cruiserweight champion.
The 47-year-old Nelson recently spoke up about Huck being on the verge of tying his record, and said “In my prime Huck wouldn’t have stood a chance…the fight wouldn’t have gone the distance. Even now, a decade later, I know I could beat him.”
In looking back at some of Nelson’s most important fights as the WBO champion while researching this article, I must say I don’t see Nelson as having had any chance against Huck even in his prime. Nelson didn’t have much power, and he had kind of a slow way of fighting like someone who was constantly pacing himself. Huck is a major puncher, and he would have gone after Nelson from the get go and given him problems.
Nelson was the WBO champion during what I consider the dead period of the cruiserweight division. There weren’t many talented fighters around when Nelson held the WBO strap from 1999-2006, and about the best guy he fought during that time was Guillermo Jones, who Nelson fought to a controversial 12 round draw in November 2002 in the UK.
I watched that fight, and I had Jones winning the fight by 6 rounds easy. I don’t know how the judges scored that fight a draw, because Jones clearly out-worked Nelson but ended up having to settle for a draw.
‘’I remember Johnny Nelson,’’ said Huck’s trainer UIi Wegner. ‘’He came over for sparring ten or eleven times, and each time he would only do the bare minimum. He was a gifted boxer but in terms of laziness no one could hold a candle to him. I don’t believe he can or will want to get back into fighting shape. He should continue to focus on his job in television because a fight with Marco would end in embarrassment.’’
So there it is. Wegner wasn’t impressed with Nelson’s gym work, and he feels that Huck would have beaten him.
As far as Nelson being able to hang with Huck now at age 47, I really hope Nelson doesn’t attempt to make a comeback because it’ll likely end in failure like many fighters that have been out of the ring for ages.
Huck wouldn’t be able to just fight Nelson straightaway without him having a ranking, and for him to get ranked, Nelson would have to fight for a year or so and beat some quality fighters. By then, he’ll 48-years-old and what’s the point? I just don’t see it happening.
Other weights on the card:
Denis Boytsov 220.5 vs. Timur Musafarov 213.8
Slavisa Simeunovic 166.9 vs. Vincent Feigenbutz 164.9
Giuseppe Brischetto 171.3 vs. Enrico Kölling 174.
Tickets for Huck-Larghetti can be purchased at www.gerryweber-world.de.
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