By Jason Kim: World Boxing Organization cruiserweight champion Marco Huck (29-1, 22 KO’s) will be defending his WBO title against American Matt Godfrey (20-1, 10 KO’s) in a 12 round bout at the Messehalle, Erfurt, Thüringen, Germany. For the 25-year-old Huck, this could be his toughest fight since being beaten by Steve Cunningham in a 12th round TKO in December 2007.

Although Huck has beaten Victor Ramirez, Ola Afolabi and Brian Minto since losing to Cunningham, the 29-year-old Godfrey could be the toughest fight of all due to Godfrey’s excellent boxing skills.

Huck is used to running over his opponents with brute strength. He’s been helped in a lot of ways due to his opponents wanting to brawl with him. Indeed, Huck hasn’t had problems having to search for his opponents in the ring, as Minto, Afolabi and Ramirez all went toe-to-toe with Huck and paid the price by losing.

Godfrey isn’t that type of fighter. He’s going to try and beat you with finesse and ring smarts. This is where Huck is lacking, because he’s all about brawling. In his one where he did meet a boxer in Steve Cunningham, Huck was totally outclassed and left looking clueless.

He attempted to bum rush Cunningham over and over again, but Cunningham moved out of the way and picked Huck off each time. In the end, Huck ran out of gas and was stopped when Cunningham opened up with his own arsenal in the 12th and Huck didn’t have enough left to withstand the late surge.

Godfrey is less versatile as Cunningham, but he is the better boxer and has a great chin. In his only loss of his career, Godfrey was beaten by Rudolf Kraj in a 12 round decision loss in March 2008. Since that fight, Godfrey has won his last four fights.

In his last bout, he narrowly beat Michael Simms by a 10 round split decision in September 2009. One thing you have to wonder is whether Godfrey will be rusty or not. He’s been out of action for almost a year now and will be taking on perhaps the 2nd best cruiserweight in the division with the hard hitting Huck.

Godfrey is going to be pushed hard and met with a lot of heavy shots for as long as this fight lasts. Huck does have fatigue problems, but by the time they start to show up, his opponents are usually knocked out already.