(Photo Wende) By Jason Kim: Marco Huck (34-1, 25 KO’s) is hoping he’ll have the same kind of success tonight against WBA World heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (23-0, 16 KO’s) that he’s had fighting in the cruiserweight division where he’s previously captured the WBO title and defended it successfully eight times, albeit not without a great deal of controversy due to his questionable win over Russian Denis Lebedev.

Tonight, Huck steps up in weight to a new division to face Povetkin at the Porsche-Arena, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Huck thinks he can win this fight and points to his previous sparring he did with Povetkin in which Huck says he got the better of him. Huck told Sky Sports News “I’m ready to become heavyweight champion. I would not have takent the fight if I didn’t believe in myself. Povetkin is good, but I can beat him. We once did sparring together and he has bad memories of me. On Saturday, I will be the new champ. He is going down.”

Huck, 209lbs, is giving up a lot of weight to the 229 pound champion and he’s going to have to punch above his weight because Povetkin has never had problems taking shots from small heavyweights like Huck. As a cruiserweight, Huck had good power, but he’s moving up against a fighter that’s nearly 30 pounds heavier than the guys that Huck has been matched against during his career. This could prove quite difficult for him to get the same kinds of results that he’s been getting because Povetkin is used to getting hit by much larger guys than Huck. As it is, Huck isn’t a busy fighter and tends to charge, land three or four shots and then retreat to rest. Povetkin is the opposite kind of fighter. He tends to come in like a large surge and just stay on top of his opponent landing a lot of punches to eventually wear them down. Huck may have to use his feet a lot more than he’s had to in the past.