By Jason Kim: WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck (34-2, 25 KO’s) will be making his 9th title defense of his World Boxing Organization belt on May 5th in a rematch against contender Ola Afolabi (19-2-3, 9 KO’s) a the Messehalle, in Erfurt, Thüringen, Germany. Huck and Afolabi fought previously in December 2009 with Huck doing just enough to edge the fight by a close 12 round unanimous decision. Things have changed since then.

Afolabi, #1 WBO, #4 WBA, #7 IBF, has improved a lot, enough to where he might be able to beat Huck this time if the judges score the fight based on his likely better work rate. Huck is a fighter who is easy to out-land. However, because he throws with so much power and fights in explosive spurts, he’s often able to win rounds even when his opponent has done far more work. His last fight against the busy WBA World heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin in February was the exception. Povetkin was the busier fighter and the judges gave him the decision over Huck.

For Afolabi to win, he’ll have to be as busy as Povetkin was, because he’s probably going to be able to stop Huck. It’s possible to score a knockout over Huck, as we saw Huck stopped by Steve Cunningham in a 12th round TKO loss in December 2007. However, that was a long time ago, and Huck has gotten better. Afolabi’s best bet is to try and throw as many shots as possible to win the round. Afolabi has to use jab a lot more than he did in the first fight, and make sure he stays out of the way when Huck explodes with his combinations. Huck is a lot like Arthur Abraham in that he seems to turn it on in the last 30 seconds of the round to try and impress the judges with one big flurry to get them forget all the rest of the round.