Huck wants a rematch with Povetkin, but will have to wait his turn

By Boxing News - 02/27/2012 - Comments

Image: Huck wants a rematch with Povetkin, but will have to wait his turnBy Jason Kim: Marco Huck (34-2, 25 KO’s) finally found out himself what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a controversial decision in his 12 round majority decision loss to WBA World heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (24-0, 16 KO’s) last Saturday night at the Porsche-Arena, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Huck reportedly wants an immediate rematch, because he feels like he won their fight and wants to prove that he’s the better fighter. Unfortunately, Huck isn’t in the position to call the shots about when and if a rematch with the 32-year-old Povetkin will take place because he’s still just another beaten contender. Povetkin would like nothing better than to fight Huck again because it attracted a lot of attention, brought in a huge gate at the Porsche Arena and got good ratings on German television. However, Povetkin has a mandatory title defense that he has get out of the way against 39-year-old former IBF/WBC heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman (50-7-2, 41 KO’s) next. Povetkin only has 120 days to defend his WBA title against Rahman or else the World Boxing Association will strip him of his title.

Huck fought well in the middle of the fight after getting off to a slow start. However, it wasn’t enough, as Povetkin came back late to seal the victory when he pummeled Huck in the 11th round with nonstop punches. The judges scored it 114-114, 116-113 and 116-112.

Huck has a big decision to make. He can stay at heavyweight and keep busy by knocking off one or two of the top contenders to help build up his name in that division or he can go back down to cruiserweight and defend his World Boxing Organization title against Denis Lebedev or Ola Afolabi. Those are the guys he should be fighting because Huck hasn’t faced a top five contender since winning a controversial decision over Lebedev in December 2010. Since then, Huck has been milking his WBO against lower ranked contenders Ran Nakash, Hugo Hernan Garay and Rogelio Omar Rossi. It would be disappointing if Huck moves back down in weight and continues to fight opponents ranked below the #10 spot. Rossi was ranked #15 WBO, and Huck’s opponent before that, Garay, was ranked #15 WBO, and the one before that, Nakash, was ranked #10 WBO. How the WBO could let Huck face three consecutive non-top five contenders is the real question. It just seems wrong.



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