By Jim Dower: In what many boxing fans felt would be a closely contested fight ended up being a mostly one-sided affair on Saturday with German based cruiserweight contender Marco Huck (26-1, 20 KO’s) dominating Argentinean Victor Emilio Ramirez (15-2, 12 KOs) to take away his WBO cruiserweight title with a 12-round unanimous decision at the Gerry Weber Stadium, Halle, in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.
The decision didn’t sit right with Ramirez, 25, who responded by dashing out of the arena without saying anything to the German media. Ramirez was in such a rush, he almost ran over one of the security team who was scrambling to escort Ramirez out of the arena.
In terms of excitement, the bout was without any real fireworks such as knockdowns. Huck, 24, lost two points for low blows in rounds seven and eleven. The judges scored the fight 116-111, 116-111 and 115-112. It’s scary to think what the scores would have been like had the referee not taken away the points from Huck.
The first round kind of set the pattern of the fight as Huck stayed on the outside landing long jabs and right hands to the head and body of Ramirez. Huck responded well to Ramirez’s heavy pressure offense by moving continuously and stopping every now and then to land combinations to the head of Ramirez as he would plod forward.
Many of the punches that Ramirez threw in the fight were wild hooks that Huck was easily able to pick off or lean away from. Near the end of the 1st round, Huck suddenly reversed his backwards movement and charged Ramirez, hitting him with four big right hands. Ramirez looked shocked as if he wasn’t expecting Huck to come after him.
Ramirez came out looking much more determined in the 2nd round, as he hit Huck with big left hooks to the head. Huck tried to move away but Ramirez skillfully moved with him and showed good accuracy with landing his shots in this round.
Huck tried to stand his ground and fire back some big right hands, but Ramirez almost took his head off with a big left hook late in the round. Huck then decided it was best to keep moving rather than try to trade shots with Ramirez. In the 3rd round, Ramirez looked good in the first half of the round.
He put Huck on the defense and was able to hit him with some big hooks to the head. However, in the 2nd half the round, Huck went after Ramirez and hit him with a number of strong right hands and quick combinations.
Huck changed tactics in the 4th round and began to move more and clinch Ramirez every time he would get near. This strategy effectively took away Ramirez’s offense in the entirety, because he didn’t have the movement to keep up with Huck while he was circling the ring. And when Ramirez did succeed in getting close, Huck would clinch him and take away any opportunities he might have to land anything substantial.
From rounds five through nine, Huck controlled the action with his powerful combinations and movement. When Ramirez would get in close, Huck met him with short uppercuts that would snap Ramirez’s head back. The uppercuts made Ramirez’s job that much harder than it already was.
At this point, Ramirez appeared to have lost every round since then 2nd and wasn’t doing well to keep the fight close. He began to look discouraged and was fighting with less intensity as the rounds progressed. In the 7th, Huck lost a point due to a low blow. This seemed to energize Ramirez for the rest of the round as he attacked Huck with a lot of energy as the round ended.
Ramirez fought well through much of the 8th, as he put a ton of pressure on Huck by continually coming forward. However, Huck stayed calm after getting hit with some big shots from Ramirez in the first half of the round, and then took the attack the attack to Ramirez in the second part of the round. Huck’s punches landed with a lot more power and seemed to do more damage than Ramirez’s shots.
In the last three rounds of the fight, Huck did pretty much what he wanted with Ramirez, hitting him with short right hands and sometimes opening up with flurries. Ramirez tried to go for a knockout in the 12th, but after landing a few hard shots to the head of Huck, it was Huck who came on and was landing the punishing shots at the end of the fight.
With this win, Huck will likely take taken on the interim cruiserweight champion Ola Afolabi next. That’s a fight that will be interesting to see. I think Huck wins that one, mostly because of his high work rate and his excellent chin. Afolabi doesn’t throw a lot of punches and instead fights in brief spurts. He won’t be able to outpoint Huck if he doesn’t fight hard for a full three minutes of every round the way that Huck does.
Afolabi has pulled off some big wins in two out of his last three fights, stopping Eric Fields and Enzo Maccarinelli. However, Afolabi probably won’t be able to count on getting a knockout against Huck, so he’s going to have to work on his put output and try to figure out a way to match Huck in that department.
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