By Eric Thomas: WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck )31-1, 23 KO’s) fights 41-year-old former WBC cruiserweight champ Giacobbe Fragomeni (27-3-1, 11 KO’s) at the Gerry Weber Stadium, Halle, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Huck, 26, will have a number of advantages on his side in this fight starting with his age. Fragomeni is over 40 now, and has lost two out of his last three fights. He’s also slower, weaker and smaller than Huck at only 5’9″ compared to the 6′ 1½″ Huck.

Ranked at number #10 by the WBO, Fragomeni doesn’t seem like a good choice for a champion to be facing unless he’s looking to get in an easy fight without the danger of losing his title. Huck is a big puncher, but he’s got bad boxing skills and can out-boxed. That doesn’t mean he’ll get beaten, because we already saw in the Lebedev fight that it doesn’t matter if Huck gets out-landed and out-boxed, he still wins.

Huck proved in his last fight against Denis Lebedev last December that Huck is nearly impossible to beat unless you knock him out. When he’s fighting at home in Germany, it’s probably impossible for Huck to be beaten right now by decision. Huck probably would have lost the Lebedev fight if it had taken place in any other country besides Germany. Lebedev

The only question about the Fragomeni vs. Huck fight is which round Huck will be taking Fragomeni out. He’s too old and small to beat Huck, and he has no chance of winning other than getting lucky and knocking Huck out. Huck needs to give Lebedev a rematch after this fight, but that’s not likely to happen. Huck’s promoters will likely keep him away from Lebedev until the cruiserweight tournament. They might be better off having Huck fight Lebedev again right now, because the cruiserweight tournament will have big parts of the world watching and if Lebedev loses another questionable decision, it’s going to make Huck and his promoters look bad.