International Boxing Federation cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham (21-1, 11 KOs) turned back German-based challenger Marco Huck (19-1, 14 KOs), stopping him in the 12th round on Saturday night at the Seidensticker Halle, in Bielefeld, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. After a strong first two rounds in which Huck, a power puncher, landed a number of hard shots to effectively win both rounds, he faded badly and was ultimately stopped by the 31 year-old Cunningham.
Huck, only 23, appeared out of his class in the bout, looking both too slow and limited to give the more skilled Cunningham much problems. Following the second round, Cunningham controlled the fight with his jab, and right hands to the body, keeping Huck on the outside. As in his previous bouts, Huck showed a tendency to charge in, much like stable mate Arthur Abraham tends to do, coming forward and throwing punches in a furious manner.
The style of fighting, which looks almost amateurish, wasn’t effective against a fighter with the boxing skills of Cunningham, as he calmly would either step aside or hit Huck as he was coming in. As early as the 5th round, Huck began showing signs of fatigue, looking completely exhausted, his punch output dropping off to next to zero. From rounds five to twelve, only rarely did Huck mount an attack, usually near the end of the round when the 10 second warning bell would ring.
It was often far too late for Huck to win the rounds, due to the vast majority of the work being done by Cunningham. Huck began to develop swelling under his right cheek in the 4th round, courtesy of Cunningham’s numerous pawing jabs. Though Cunningham isn’t much of a puncher by any means, because of the total number of punches he landed, Huck was bound to develop swelling at some point in the fight.
In the 7th round, Huck had a cut open behind his right ear from the many cuffing right hands that landed from Cunningham which found their place just behind Huck’s left ear. In rounds eight through ten, Huck looked positively exhausted, breathing hard in his corner while his trainer often was out of breath himself trying to encourage Huck to get back into the fight. In the 11th round, Huck looked good, landing some excellent right hands and generally out-hustled Cunningham in the round.
However, in the 12th round, Huck looked totally spent at the start of the round, moving around the ring as if his feet were stuck in glue. Shortly into the round, Cunningham leaned on Huck and forced him to the ground. After getting up, Huck looked amazingly tired, as if the exertion of having to pick himself off the canvas had taken the remaining energy out of his body. Seeing this, Cunningham pounced on Huck, hitting him with a flurry of shots, and driving him across the ring. Finally, a white towel was thrown in the ring by Huck’s trainer, Ulli Wegner, with a little more than a minute to go in the round, signaling that he wanted the fight stopped.
Afterwards, Huck said, “I was too tense,” the disappointed challenger said afterwards. “I had difficulties getting off punches. Cunningham was the better fighter tonight and deserved to win.”
From my perspective, Huck looked bad, almost like amateur fighter, certainly not a top 10 fighter. I had him losing his last fight, a majority decision over Russian Vadim Tokarev, a bout in which Huck looked poor in his wild attacks against Tokarev. Just as in the case of his bout with Cunningham, Huck mostly missed with his punches when he came charging in, and seemed to get credit for punches that hit only air.
Though Huck is only 23, he doesn’t match up well with the other top cruiserweights, and would likely be annihilated by another 23 year-old German-based cruiserweight prospect Yoan Pablo Hernandez.