By William Mackay: Vulnerable World Boxing Organization (WBO) cruiserweight champion Victor Emilio Ramirez (15-1, 12 KO’s) will be defending his title on August 29th against German based cruiserweight contender Marco Huck (25-1, 20 KO’s) at the Gerry Weber Stadium, Halle, in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.
This is going to be a tough fight for the 25-year-old Ramirez, who didn’t look at all good in his past two fights despite outlasting previously unbeaten Russian Olympian Alexander Alexeev in a 9th round stoppage in January 2009 in a battle for the interim WBO cruiserweight title.
All Ramirez did in that fight was stay upright for nine rounds and Alexeev did the rest by gassing out and having his corner retire him in the 9th. In facing Huck, who’s ranked #4 in the WBO, #3 in the WBC, #4 in the IBF and #5 in the WBA, Ramirez will be up against an opponent with good stamina, and excellent power.
Best of all, Huck has a good chin. It’s going to take a lot for Ramirez to beat him, because the Argentinean fighter has suffered from a low work rate in the past two fights and looked nothing special both times. Ramirez’s last fight against little known Ali Ismailov, a 12-round split decision victory in May 2009, is especially worrisome, because Ismailov is not a great fighter, yet he was able to match Ramirez punch for punch and almost beat him.
Huck may not be the best cruiserweight in the division or anything close to being that, but I think he’s a much better than Ismailov. And that’s not a good thing for Ramirez, because he will not only be facing a better fighter than himself, but he’ll have to travel to Germany in fight in Huck’s next of the woods in their fight on August 29th.
Huck, 24, has improved a lot since being defeated by Steve Cunningham two years ago in December 2007 in a 12th round stoppage. Huck looked amateurish against Cunningham in that fight and seemed to tire almost immediately.
However, Huck has gotten much more powerful since then and doesn’t make the same mistake of resting on then ropes that he did in that fight. For Huck to beat Ramirez, he’ll have to stay off the ropes because that’s the mistake that Alexeev made in his fight with Ramirez and he ended up getting hurt by some of Ramirez’s big shots at close range.
However, mostly Alexeev tired out from being on his feet for so long, because most of his fights up until them Ramirez bout had been knockouts that occurred between the 1st and 6th rounds. Since the defeat at the hands of Cunningham, Huck has put together an impressive six fight winning streak, knocking out all six of his opponents.
I doubt that Huck will be able ton knockout the steel-chinned Ramirez, but I do think that Huck will be able to throw enough flurries to stead enough rounds to win the fight.
For Huck, this will be his second chance at a title, and he doesn’t want to blow it again like he did in his fight with Cunningham. However, even if Huck wins the fight, which I suspect he will without too many problems, he’ll still have to face WBO interim cruiserweight champion Ola Afolabi in a fight or two. That will be a very tough fight for Huck and I doubt he’ll win that one.