Huck-Nzama, Castillejo-Sylvester On Saturday

By Boxing News - 04/11/2008 - Comments

huck453431.jpgBy Erik Schmidt: Cruiserweight contender Marco Huck (19-1, 14 KOs), fresh off a 12th round TKO loss to IBF cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham on December 29th, will make his first appearance since that time when he hopes for a change in luck against Leon Nzama (2-6) on Saturday night at the Jahnsportforum, Neubrandenburg, in Brandenburg, Germany. If there was ever a fighter that Huck could have chosen to ensure that he comes out the winner this Saturday, it’s Nzama, who has lost his last five fights coming into this Saturday’s bout with Huck.

Based on the relative inexperience, and the poor record of Nazama, one could safely conclude that Huck’s management team doesn’t have a lot of confidence in him that he’ll be able to overcome adversity if matched any tougher than this. However, I don’t blame them one bit for putting Huck in with a fighter with a record as dreadful as this, for Huck has looked no better than an amateur in his last two fights, beating Vadim Tokarev by a gift majority decision in May 2007, and then getting stopped in the 12th round by Cunningham in December. In both cases, Huck showed a very poor work rate, throwing few punches and seeming to tire out quickly in the fight. At 23, a person would wonder why he’s already having stamina issues as he looks to be in excellent condition, with very little fat on his 6’1″ 198 lb frame.

Perhaps even worse than his poor work rate, though, is the manner in which Huck goes on attack offensively, which usually consists of him charging at his opponent, flailing his arms in a wild bonsai attack hoping to connect with something meaningful. Most of the time, in fights against Tokarev and Cunningham, Huck would be greeted with a several punches to the head for all his efforts. Against Tokarev, Huck continued with his wild amateurish charges at him, eventually winning by a majority decision.

However, he appeared to lose the fight by at least three to four rounds, but being that the fight was in Germany, it was no surprise that he ended up getting the decision in the end. Against Cunningham, however, a slightly better fighter than Tokarev, Huck was hit constantly while rushing in with his schoolyard style of fighting. Eventually, Huck gave up almost completely with his wild attacks, and did essentially nothing for the remainder of the bout following the 3rd round. It was as if he didn’t have a plan B to fall back on when his only offensive style was negated by Cunningham.

When I saw Huck against Tokarev, I knew that sooner or later he’d get badly beaten once he fought a skilled cruiserweight that was good enough to take advantage of his poor offensive skills. I never realized that his German management would decide upon rushing him so soon into a title bout. I wish I could have spoken to them; I would have warned them against doing that, because he wasn’t nearly ready to take such a tremendous leap from Tokarev, who as I mentioned already Huck beat by a gift decision, to that of Cunningham.

What’s even scarier than that is to imagine what would have happened if Huck had been put in with David Haye. That, I imagine, would have been a fast knockout within the first 30 seconds of the 1st round. Huck really needs to start from scratch, straight from the beginning and learn how to fight. I don’t think it’s possible, but if his management team cares about him and wants him to be good one day, they need to invest some training for him.

Even with training, I don’t see him ever becoming a champion, because there are simply too many other cruiserweights out there with better skills than him, who would crush him if given the chance. That’s the way it is in boxing though. At least Huck can feel good that he fought for a title, even if it was under the less desirable circumstances of having beaten his previous opponent by a gift decision.

In the other bout on the same card, former WBA middleweight champion Javier Castillejo (62-7, 43 KOs) will go up against #3 ranked IBF middleweight contender Sebastian Sylvester (28-2, 13 KOs). Castillejo, now 40, has had a bit of bad luck of his own recently, losing his WBA middleweight title to Felix Sturm by a close 12-round unanimous decision last April in Germany, a fight which Castillejo, the champion, had appeared to have done enough to get the win. At worst, I saw the fight as a draw, but it was clearly a win for Castillejo by at least two rounds. Unfortunately, the fight was fought in Germany, and there was no rematch available for Castillejo, even though he had given a rematch to Sturm after knocking him out previously in the 10th round a year earlier, in July 2006.

If you saw his last fight with Sturm, you can’t help but to feel for Castillejo, who fought his heart out, only to have his title taken away from his on a questionable decision afterwards. Never the less, if Castillejo can defeat Sylvester, which will be no easy task because Sylvester, 27, is a decent fighter, then Castillejo will be in line for a third bout with Sturm, this one to prove who the better fighter is between the two. Sylvester is a decent fighter, though not really championship quality material from what I’ve seen of him. However, Castillejo won’t just be fighting Sylvester; he’ll be fighting the location, which will favor Sylvester. Based on that, I don’t see Castillejo winning unless he can somehow knock Sylvester out.