By Allan Fox: Former WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck (39-3-1, 27 KOs) has an important fight this Saturday night on November 19 against #6 WBC, #9 IBF, #9 WBO contender Dmytro Kucher (24-1-1, 18 KOs) in a scheduled 12 round fight at the Tui Arena in Hannover, Germany. The Huck vs. Kucher fight will be televised on RTL on Saturday in Germany. The fight won’t be televised in the U.S. unfortunately.
The 32-year-old Huck will be defending his International Boxing Organization cruiserweight title. This could be a tough fight for Huck, who was knocked out in the 11th round last year in September 2015 by Krzysztof Glowacki in Newark, New Jersey.
Huck made the mistake of standing in the pocket against the hard hitting southpaw Glowacki instead of trying to box him from the outside the way that Oleksandr Usyk recently did in his 12 round decision win over the Polish fighter.
Huck paid for it big time with him getting knocked down twice in the 11sth round and stopped. It might not have been possible for Huck to use his boxing skills to beat Glowacki even if he wanted to, because he’s been so dependent on slugging his entire 12-year pro career. Huck might not have been able to beat Glowacki even if he tried to box him. Glowacki was simply a better version of Huck.
Huck was supposed to be fighting British fighter Ovill McKenzie on September 24, but he retired from boxing following a diagnosis of a heart ailment. Having to now face the 32-year-old Kucher could be a tougher fight for Huck, because the Ukrainian fighter is a good puncher, and he’s got an excellent left hook that he likes to throw.
Kucher tends to be explosive with his attacks. Huck can’t afford to get clipped by Kucher’s big shots in this fight, because his chin might not be able to hold up to 12 rounds of pounding after the way that Glowacki worked him over. Having to switch from preparing for McKenzie to Kucher could be a problem for Huck, because they’re totally different fighters in terms of their fighting styles. Huck is going to need to be ready for Kucher’s explosive combinations in this fight if he doesn’t want to wind up getting staggered and dropped.
Kucher destroyed former WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli in two rounds in his last fight in June of this year in London, UK. Maccarinelli might have figured that Kucher was a beatable guy given that he had been held to a 12 round draw in his previous fight by Belgium fighter Bilal Laggoune last year in October. Kucher had also been beaten by Ilunga Makabu by a narrow 12 round majority decision in 2013. However, Kucher proved to be too big of a puncher for Maccarinelli to handle, and the fight ended in disaster for the British fighter.
Huck said this to RingTV.com about his fight against Kucher:
“It is hard to describe that feeling. The level of disappointment was immense,” Huck said. “All the hard work that went into the fight beforehand seemed to be for nothing in that moment. I wanted to fly over to the U.K. and get McKenzie to Germany personally. But that’s all part of the game. It happened and now I am moving on and preparing for my upcoming fight.”
It’s not surprising how upset Huck was at having lost out on the option of fighting McKenzie. He’s a more predictable opponent than Kucher. Huck would have likely had an easy time beating McKenzie. Against Kucher, Huck might actually lose the fight if he gets hit by one of his hard combinations.
Huck can’t afford to lose another fight now, because he’s trying to get in position for another world title shot. Huck will have a hard time winning a world title right now, because he’s probably not going to be able to handle the boxing skills, size and power of Oleksandr Usyk. Huck is behind Mairis Briedis in the rankings for a title shot against WBC champion Tony Bellew. If Briedis wins the WBC title, Huck will have a difficult time beating him.
IBF/WBA champion Denis Lebedev fought Huck six years ago, and arguably beat him. The fight was in Germany, and Huck ended up winning a very controversial 12 round split decision. Lebedev looked like the much better fighter of the two. This writer had Lebedev winning 10 rounds to 2. Huck was out-punched and out-classed in virtually every round of the fight.
It was pretty disappointing seeing him win a fight that he appeared to lose. Huck never gave Lebedev a rematch for some reason. After that questionable win, Huck won seven out of his last ten fights before getting beaten by Glowacki in 2015. Huck fought to a controversial 12 round draw against Ola Afolabi in May 2012. Afolabi appeared to dominate the fight, but the judges scored it a draw. The fight took place in Germany.
Huck did win his last fight in stopping Afolabi in the 10th round last February. This wasn’t a prime version of Afolabi that Huck had fought in the past. Afoabi is now 36, and he looked nothing like the fighter that had previously fought Huck on three separate occasions. There are some fans who believe that Afolabi deserved to win the first three fights against Huck.
“I would take them all on,” Huck said about the other cruiserweight champions. “I don’t have a particular preference. The question is do they want to fight me? “They know I am huge, the strongest cruiserweight, and therefore some of them think it‘s too risky to fight me. We will see what the future brings.”
I don’t know if the other cruiserweight champions are afraid to fight Huck. You have to wonder whether some of the champions might be apprehensive about fighting Huck in Germany, but I doubt they’re afraid to fight Huck. He’s definitely beatable, as we saw in his losses to Alexander Povetkin and Glowacki. Whether Huck can be beaten in Germany is the big question. He’s have very good luck when it comes to the scoring of his fights when he’s in Germany.
It’s unclear whether any of the champions would want to put themselves in position where they would wind up facing Huck in Germany. I think they would have no problems fighting Huck in a neutral country, but some of them might have problems agreeing to go to Germany to fight him.