(Photo: Wende) By Sean McDaniel: WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck’s recent back luck continued with him struggling to a 12 round majority draw against World Boxing Organization interim cruiserweight champion Ola Afolabi (19-2-4, 9 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Messehale, in Erfurt, Germany. The final judges’ scores were 114-114, 115-113 Huck and 114-114.

It might not have been such a bad luck thing for the 27-year-old Huck after all, though, because I had him losing the fight by a lopsided decision by 9 rounds to 3, although I’m not surprised he got a draw out of the fight. As some fans say, a draw in Germany is a lopsided decision elsewhere, and that’s how I saw this fight.

It started off badly for Huck and didn’t get much better in the second half of the fight due to Huck’s poor aim with his shots. He rarely fought hard for more than 40 seconds of every three minute round, and his low work rate made Arthur Abraham look like a busy fighter in comparison. Huck appeared to get away with being knocked down at the end of the 2nd round when Afolabi caught Huck with a left hand as he was coming forward and was knocked to the canvas with the shot.

Why referee Robert Byrd didn’t score it a knockdown is beyond me. That essentially cost Afolabi the fight. I had Afolabi winning even with missed knockdown call, but it’s too bad Byrd didn’t count the knockdown because it looked legitimate to me and I’ve seen it a dozen times in slow motion and I still can’t figure out why it wasn’t counted.

Using mostly his jab and an occasional combination, Afolabi dominated the first six rounds of the fight, winning them on my card almost by default because Huck wasn’t throwing many punches, just covering up with his high guard. Afolabi bloodied Huck’s nose in the 3rd round with a hard jab.

Huck really didn’t do anything until the 5th, when he started to charge Afolabi, throwing wild shots that would mostly miss by a mile. Huck landed a nice rabbit punch that should have caused him to get a warning but didn’t. In the last 15 seconds of the round, Huck came alive like he always does in the final seconds to try and steal the rounds, and threw a couple of shots that landed. The German crowd went wild. Unfortunately that pretty much all Huck did the entire round.

The 6th round was close with Huck landed some wild shots and missing a ton. Afolabi was the much more accurate busier fighter.

Huck fought well in the 7th, landing some hard right hands as he charged Afolabi again and again like a mad bull.

Afolabi came back and fought well in the 8th, controlling the action with his jab and keeping Huck covering up behind his guard.

Huck was getting beaten in the 9th, but then came alive in the last seconds of the round to steal it with some hard shots in a fierce attack. Afolabi weathered the storm but he took some mammoth shots. In throwing all those shots, Huck gassed out and had nothing in the 10th.

Afolabi easily won the 10th against a tired Huck. It was the same in the 11th round as well, as Huck was still too gassed out to do anything other than to cover up and throw a few shots.

In the 12th, Huck hurt Afolabi with a flurry of shots. However, Afolabi quickly recovered and the two fighters fought toe-to-toe until the final bell.

Overall, I thought this fight was poorly scored and I think the referee blew it by missing the knockdown in the 2nd round. Afolabi should have won the fight and it’s sad that all he got out of it was a draw.