By Jim Dower: Rather than fight an immediate rematch with his number #1 contender Denis Lebedev, who appeared to beat him by at least four rounds in the eyes of many boxing fans, WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck (31-1, 23 KO’s) has decided to move on from his questionable 12 round split decision victory over Lebedev last December and will be facing 41-year-old former WBC cruiserweight champion Giacobbe Fragomeni (27-3-1, 11 KO’s) on April 2nd at the Gerry Weber Stadium, Halle, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

This doesn’t figure to be a competitive fight because the 5’9 1/2″ Fragomeni has lost two out of his last three fights and has looked slow and weak, not the fighter he once was years ago. Even in his prime, Fragomeni wouldn’t have beaten Huck. It’s hard understand this fight because Huck really should be giving Lebedev a rematch because of the controversy that surrounds their fight last December. Huck was out-punched, out-landed and dominated in almost every round of the fight except for three that I could see, yet he came out on top in two of the three judges’ scores. The fight took place in Huck’s adopted country of Germany.

If Huck wasn’t interested in giving Lebedev a rematch, I’d at least like to see him face the number #2 challenger Alexander Frenkel instead of dipping down to the number #10 spot to find the down in his luck Fragomeni, who is losing more than he’s been winning as of late.

Fragomeni was briefly the WBC cruiserweight paper champion after defeating Rudolf Kraj by an 8 round technical decision in 2008 in Fragomeni’s home of Italy. I saw the fight and had Kraj winning it. Fragomeni then fought to a 12 round draw with Krzysztof Wlodarczyk in May 2009. I had Wlodarczyk winning that fight by at least four rounds. Wasn’t even close on my cards. Fragomeni was then beaten by Zsolt Erdei and Wlodarczyk in back to back fights in 2009 and 2010. In his last fight, Fragomeni finally got a win, defeating Eduardo Ayala, a fighter with a 17-33 record. In my book, I have Fragomeni losing four out of his last five bouts. Good opponent, huh? My guess is Huck will win this fight. It’s too bad he’s not interested in trying his luck against Lebedev again in a neutral venue.