By Allan Fox: WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck (34-2, 25 KO’s) will be moving back down in weight to the cruiserweight division after having failed in his only fight at heavyweight in a losing 12 round decision fight against WBA World heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin on February 25th.

A lot of boxing fans though that the 27-year-old Huck deserved to win the fight, but he clearly didn’t do enough to remove the doubt in the minds of the three judges, who scored it 114-114, 116-113 and 116-112. Huck will now have to defend his World Boxing Organization title against his mandatory challenger 31-year-old Ola Afolabi (19-2-3, 9 KO’s). Huck beat him three years ago by a close 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 115-113, 116-112 and 115-113.

This is no cake walk for Huck, because Afolabi has really improved since that defeat with the constant sparring he’s done with IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and may be able to dominate Huck with his jab alone. Afolabi easily beat Valery Brudov by a 5th round stoppage on March 3rd on the undercard of Wladimir Klitschko vs. Jean-Marc Mormeck. Afolabi’s two-fisted power was still there, but his use of the jab makes him so much better. In the past, Afolabi relied mostly on his power to win his fights, but not now. He’s a lot more of a complete fighter and he can control the fight at a distance much better. However, it will still be tough on him to get a decision over a popular fighter like Huck in Germany, because Huck is able to win rounds landing few punches because the judges are often more impressed with his power shots than the accumulation of blows that he’s hit with by his opponents.

It’s a good thing that Huck moved down in weight because his loss to Povetkin showed that he doesn’t belong in the heavyweight division. He took a real beating in that fight and that was against a light puncher in Povetkin. Can you imagine what the Klitschko brothers, Robert Helenius, Dereck Chisora, David Price, Tyson Fury, Denis Boytsov, Kubrat Pulev and Chris Arreola would have done to him? I see Huck as someone that can move up to get a money fight but lose that fight and then move down. I don’t see him as legit opponent for any of the champions. It’s all about show business.