By Erik Schmidt: Cruiserweight prospect Marco Huck (23-1, 18 KOs) destroyed an over-matched Fabio Tuiach (22-2, 14 KOs) in a 2nd round TKO on Saturday night to defend his EBU (European) cruiserweight title at the Weser-Ems-Halle, in Oldenburg, Niedersachsen, Germany. After getting off to a slow start in the first round in which he did little other than cover and try to block shots, Huck, 23, went back to his old style of fighting, bum rushing Tuiach and throwing wild flurries in every direction. Unlike in some of his recent past bouts, this time Huck was effective with his aggressive offensive attacks and succeeding in knocking Tuiach down twice in the second. After the second knockdown, which left Tuiach stuck between the ropes, the referee Dave Parris stopped the bout at 2:22 of the 2nd.

Huck, ranked an astonishing #4 in the IBF, 6 in the WBA, #8 in the WBC and #14 in the WBO, fought pretty much as he usually does, covering up in his turtle like shell in the first round and waiting for his opponent to stop throwing punches so that he could get his turn. Thankfully, Huck didn’t retreat to the ropes like he often does in his bouts, from which he plays a constant rope a dope and takes a lot of punishment. It looked as if he wanted to, as he would retreat to the ropes but then he would seemingly catch himself, and move back to the center of the ring before Tuiach could start unloading on him with punches. For the most part, Huck did little in the first round, as Tuiach teed off on his with jabs and right hands.

Huck did throw one brief flurry of punches early in the round, and Tuiach didn’t seem to take the punches all that well, looking slightly stunned from the few punches that actually landed in Huck’s wild flurry. After that brief outburst from Huck, he went back into his shell and took shots for the remainder of the round from Tuiach.

T uiach continued to fight well early in the 2nd round, hitting Huck with hard left hands and straight rights to the head. Huck looked awful as usual, more like an amateur than a professional fighter at this point in the fight. However, it wasn’t as if he was fighting an opponent with an impeccable resume, because Tuiach had limited experience against mostly C and D-class fighters in Italy, and was making a big step up in competition in facing Huck, who I personally feel is no more than a B-level fighter or high C-level. Huck, after taking a lot of punches to the head, came charging forward throwing punches as he ran, and backed Tuiach the corner where he dropped him with a left hand.

Tuiach got up, looking more angry than hurt and started bringing the attack to Huck for a brief moment. Huck, however, met him with a flurry of punches, once backing him up to the ropes where Huck landed a hard left hand and then a right, which caused Tuiach to bend over forward, making him nearly defenseless.

Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Huck hit him with a right uppercut, then a left hand and finished him off with a chopping right hand that sent him through the bottom ropes where he fell back backwards and became stuck. The referee then moved in and halted the fight at this point, even though Tuiach still didn’t look at that hurt and was merely stuck in between the ropes.